review: Hanging Garden -- the somber sublime from Finland

Hanging Garden

Skeleton Lake

Lifeforce Records

May 21st, 2021

The Finnish band Hanging Garden officially made its presence known in 2006 with a promo recording and a 2007 debut album, according to the information from Metal Archives. After five EPs, and six albums since their 2004 inception, it is time for album number seven. Looking over the information about the band, it looks like the line-up has been somewhat stable, but it is necessary to mention that on vocals since 2019 they have Riikka Hatakka joining longtime vocalist Toni Hatakka, adding another melodic voice to the band’s repertoire. The new album is nine songs in some 46 minutes, featuring an attractive variety of voices, with at least a couple of different melodic singing voices, and with quality growling. Keyboards/synths are an important element in the band’s sound, as it functions as a big canvas on which they do all the painting. The music is midtempo or on the slower side, and sometimes the pace does pick up a tiny bit, but always in a restrained way, for a pleasant, consistent listening experience. The album flows very well within the general sound of the band. The band works very hard at coming up with at least three types of melodies: keyboards, guitars and singing. Then, as a counterweight, the chunky guitars and the growling bring the heaviness. The growling is done well. It is a strong, deep, enunciated type of growling, that is mixed right so that it fits the sound. The recording team did a good job of keeping the growling at the correct volume and location in the mix. It is almost an elegant type of growling, like a gentle, kind monster. Few bands have figured out how to make growling an elegant style, and this band is about as close as this listener has heard this year.

Hanging Garden has come out of the gates with serious intentions of delivering an album that feels like a wide, grey, cloudy landscape (notice the artwork). The music is, above all, a work of and for melancholy. They seek the feeling of symphonic, melodic, pleasant heaviness in which romanticist, gothic aesthetics are indispensable to the objective of the majestic somber sublime.

Skeleton Lake by Hanging Garden

https://www.facebook.com/HangingGardenOfficial