Review Nami - Fragile Alignments 2011

From Andorra hails a band called Nami, which would seem to be a band from a rather strange place for a metal band. I believe this is the first ever band from there we review in the hallowed scrolls. The name Nami led me to some interesting discoveries, did you know that the acronym NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness which I think speak for itself considering what they do. Nami can also be a first or a last name in Japan and in arab nations, there are singers and athletes with those names. There is also a well known character in some manga show who is a skinny orange haired female that is part of the Straw Pirates, that sounds a bit like fun I would say and hope it is from her they have taken their name but there was no info on that and in the end it doesn’t matter anyway.

Nami are releasing their debut album and it is called Fragile Alignments, it has a nice psychedelic album cover that makes me at least a little bit curious about what they might have to offer musically. Known producer Jens Brogren who has been part of the production of this album is quoted saying that he was blown away by the strength and maturity of this band, so one could say that there are some indications to this band being interesting.

They are said to be fusing elements of Opeth, Cynic, A Perfect Circle and so on, which all sounds very interesting of course. I would say that they sound a bit like Opeth of their earlier music, but with a little bit more variation and progressiveness. Their music varies from beautiful to really aggressive, I don’t think I am exaggerating if I say that the album is varied. The sound is modern and clean while still maintaining the aggressive edge in the aggressive parts, the clean vocals often as an eery sense to it, a bit of a melancholic sense to them. The changing between moods and elements in the music is almost exclusively done smooth and seamless, and in a very skilled manner. Fragile Alignments offer us nine tracks and 58 minutes of music which encompass more or less everything you could imagine.

The opening instrumental track is just fantastic, such beauty, skill and everything else that it is this track. It just sets on a fantastic tone and also stops you in your stride and makes you listen, it is that good. I think it is the best track on the album, but it is hard to say that the subsequent tracks are standalone tracks in the same way as this track is, I for one do not think they are. I think this album ought to be looked at exclusively as a whole rather than a collection of songs, it is such an impressive piece of work this album with so many layers, so many things to discover and so much to hear. It requires your constant focus to follow the many little details in the music of this album and I also think that is the main weakness of the album: it lacks and real breathing spaces, it requires your attention all the time. But it is not a big problem as it is a very good album to lend your attention to and you will be so much more rewarded when you pay more attention to this album as it has so much to offer in its depth and many layers of music. I do however think that the album is a little bit too long as it is quite tiring to listen to in the longer run.

In the end though, Japanese girl or not, this band is really impressive and this debut both promises a lot for the future and leaves you with something good to listen to today while waiting for that future. If you were disappointed to know that Opeth left out the growling on their latest album, then I think this might be something for you. If you like your music to be a challenge and an adventure it is also something to look into, this is a really impressive debut album. I can say that this is an album that I will probably come back to from time to time even now that I have written this review, it is just a really good album. So to round it off I would say that this is one impressive album from a very interesting new acquaintance, I would buy this album if I were you.

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Nami Fragile Alignments

Nami
Fragile Alignments