Namaah - Resensement

Home Artist links Label link

Namaah - Resensement

Artist:	Namaah
Title:	Resensement
Label:	Metal Mind Records MMP CD 0246
Length(s):	65 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2004
Month of review:	[01/2005]

Line up

Anna Panasz - vocals
Adam Kaliszewski - rhythm (right) and lead guitar
Mikolaj Szalkowski - rhythm (left) and lead guitar
Adam Szewczyk - keyboards, programming, noises
Marcin Stasiak - bass
Krzyssztof Szalkowski - drums

Tracks

1)	Daydream Part One	10.13
2)	Severed	7.24 MP3
3)	Not For You	6.33
4)	Subsistance	6.22
5)	Red Light (instrumental)	6.45
6)	Alright	7.19
7)	Daydream Part Two	10.53
8)	Subsistance (polish Version)	6.23
9)	Twoja (piano Version)	2.34

Summary

My first encounter with this Polish outfit, although this is their third real album. Too bad I don't know how to make that strike through letter which they use in Poland. Anyone know which code they have for it in HTML?

The music

Daydream Part One opens with cosmic keyboards, slowly building up with guitar and bass to something akin Marillion, in their Seasons End days. This ends when the guitars set in in force. Then the music comes close to progmetal, with the rhythm guitars grinding and the keyboards soloing on top. Although Anna has a slight accent, I do not mind since she has a strong voice. The song can be quite up-beat, with a strong bluesy feel, while the guitar sometimes move in the direction of King Crimson, while the over the top type keyboards remind more of the Magna Carta bands. Plenty of variation thus since the band touches on this and more in this first track. The overall feel I get is one of progmetal with female vocals, nice melodic material, certainly not of the 'heard it all before' type, and some nice bombastic outbursts. The song ends especially nice with fast playful piano. We move abruptly into Severed, which has a slower gait and seems more thoughtful and atmospheric. The vocals are vaguer here, and Anna sungs really well here. The vocal mumblings she makes here seem to fit her more, than the Lana Lane type thing (although admittedly on the previous track she sung more like a Janis Joplin type of singer, with a certain blues feel). Later on, the music becomes more forceful, and the accent shows through more. Now the progmetal background is unmistakable again. Right after, it is time for some thoughtful piano, somewhat jazzy in outset. Then we build back up to bombast and a clean guitar solo.

The riff of Not For you, in combination with the storng bass presence sounds extremely familiar (but what is it?). The following balladic passage reminds of Hogarth era Marillion, but soon the rhythm guitars set in again and we are back in the progmetal. Subsistance simply continues the established style of solid melodic progmetal with plenty of bombast and rhythm guitars to satisfy those into the style. Even I like it. What often happens in this line of music is that the songs start out well, but deflate as soon as we come to the vocal parts. This does not happen here. The vocal parts are varied, sometimes rather straightforward, but sometimes quite different, Arabic or otherwise in feel. This kind of variety I guess they gleaned from such bands as The Gathering with whom they have toured. The repetitive guitar lines here are actually really nice, and the Crimsonesque (Discipline era) fragmentariness also sets in. This rocks well.

Red Light (instrumental) is a typical progmetal (a la Dream Theater) instrumental, executed with flair and fire and certainly a group effort. Excellent drive here. At the end some more modern keyboards set in, bringing in a certain dance/house feel. Alright opens in a relaxed mode, in fact this seems to be a ballad with a strong bass, piano and vocal presence. On the whole, not a very impressive track, although the jazz break is nice, with some guitar riff citations flying about. The second part of the track is groovy blues/jazzrock, which can't entice me. The instrumental work out in the middle sounds more like something that could be included in a live version, but I would hardly expect in a recording.

The album itself concludes with almost eleven more minutes of Daydream. Opening with cosmic keyboards we have the usual slow build-up. Some nice atmospherics on the keyboards here, which turns into something dance like. The band certainly is not scared to mix in modern influences, similar to Galahad, Ozrics and the like. The song stays rather floating like and in fact comes quite close to a vocal kind of Ozrics. The expected guitar interruptions don't come in.

Subsistance also exists in a Polish version, which is featured as the first bonus track. Plenty of mysterious vocals and rhtyhm guitars on this one. The second bonus track a piano/vocal version of Twoja (

Conclusion

Namaah combines the progmetal of Dream Theater with pure bombastic prog, modern dance influences mixing in elements of Marillion and The Gathering resulting in a satisfying piece of work, which I like most in the more bombastic bits, and those were the vocalist takes time to relax somewhat and introduce some versatility into her singing such as in Severed or Subsistance.