Released By : Firestarter
Genre : Progressive Metal
Link : http://www.facebook.com/heminamusic
Tracklist:
1. This Hour of Ours
2. To Conceive a Plan
3. The Boy is Dead
4. For All Wrong Reasons
5. And Now to Find a Friend
6. With What I See
7. Hunting is for Women
8. Even in Heaven
9. Conduit to the Sky
10. Haunting Me!
11. Divine
Australia isn’t exactly a place that is known for its global export of progressive metal acts, so every now and then when a release in the genre comes along I’m pretty excited to hear it. The last Aussie prog metal album I had the pleasure of listening to was the recently released THE MEANING OF I from VOYAGER, so SYNTHETIC from Sydney-based band HEMINA had a lot to live up to.
I had heard good things about SYNTHETIC before receiving it and in some part I agree with those that have praised it, unfortunately though I have personally come across of few negative factors that have caused me to enjoy it a bit less than some of my music rating counterparts. The album is based around the epic metal opera type concept, and while I’m not quite sure what it’s about exactly I will say that the product overall does have that ‘complete’ feel to it.
The main negative I found while listening to SYNTHETIC was that there seemed to be too many sections that went on a little too long with not much happening. Yes, it’s all about creating a soundscape, but the lack of action in certain parts led me to get a little bored at times….something that should never happen with a release in the progressive metal field. Another slight downer here is that I feel lead vocalist Douglas Skene isn’t quite as ready as I’d like. I can hear what he’s trying to do, but at times it sounds as though he is straining to reach certain notes rather than singing in his comfort zone.
On a more positive note though, the lyrics here are totally awesome and the production is definitely of a very high quality. The musicianship is very good too, but some of the guys just need to find a way to be a little bit busier occasionally. Considering though that HEMINA have only been together a mere three years and SYNTHETIC is only their debut album I’d say there’s plenty of time for them to grow as a band. Occasionally you find a band that simply nails it on their debut, but that’s quite rare. In truth it usually takes bands two, three sometimes even four albums until they begin firing on all cylinders. I definitely see good thing’s in the future for this band of Aussie prog metallers but their debut offering is a case of close, but not quite there yet.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 7/10
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