Nahemah - 'A New Constellation'

Progressive metal with a sharp edge that has excellent musicianship, but lacks that certain spark to elevate it to the upper echelon.

Progressive metal meets harsh post-rock on A New Constellation, Nahemah’s fourth album, and second with Lifeforce Records. Blending elements from Opeth, Anathema and Novembers Doom, Nahemah is able to add their own touches to avoid the copycat labeling. Their sound is built upon the idea of repetition to punctuate and enhance the hypnotic, yet simplistic, melodies. While engaging at times, issues become more apparent with the longer tracks.

Nahemah is at their strongest when sticking to the four-to-five minute range. Songs like “Follow Me” and “Absynthe” are catchy and in-your-face, with subtle saxophone and keyboard work to add dimensions to the songwriting. Even with the growls and screams from Pablo Egido’s mouth, there is a melodic touch that emits from the band. Egido also tries his hands at clean vocals to mixed results.

The monotony is noticeable on the epic numbers, where there are extended instrumental sections that continue endlessly with no purpose. With limited lead guitar work, these moments turn from effective atmosphere-building tools to unnecessary padding. A little variety would have gone a long way.

Nahemah has immense talent in its ranks, but throughout the 50 or so minutes of A New Constellation, there isn’t much that sticks out. It’s a case of an album that lacks a certain spark to grab the listener’s attention. Nahemah comes close near the end, with “The Trip” utilizing a soft/loud dynamic on top of a wonderful acoustic passage and the heavy synthesizer use on “Smoke’s Men,” making it sound like something from John Carpenter during his “Escape From New York” days. These two tracks are the closest Nahemah comes to breaking out; sadly, it’s too little too late by that point. The opportunities are there, and the musicianship is fantastic, but Nahemah only gets in a few soft jabs, instead of delivering a knockout punch.