Hyaline Grace released their debut album on January
15, 2019. I fortunately just found it on CDBaby.com a few weeks ago. This album
is a wonderful combination of vocals and music, similar to the sounds of Kate
Bush and the UK band Pure Reason Revolution; which indeed is an inspired mix.
Hyaline Grace is Katherine Bark and Tyler Martin. Katherine’s voice often
sounds like a younger Kate Bush on some of these tracks as she provides lead
vocals and the album’s lyrics. Katherine also plays piano and keyboards on the
debut. Tyler Martin plays guitars and handles programming for the album.
The album was mixed by Tyler Martin, and mastered by Gregory Pastic at Sound
Art Mastering Studio, Peterborough, Ontario. The cover photography was created by
George Arthur Pastic.
Every track on the album is exceptional. There are no minutes or tracks wasted.
“Isaac”, opens the album with soft piano that just melts the cold outside on a November day. It is a warm opener to help celebrate this band’s debut album. The stringed orchestration which later enters the soundscape, provides an even more complete emotional lift.
“Spirited Away”, opens with drums, guitar and keyboard programming. Katherine Bark’s first vocals emerge from the soundscape. She sounds like the ladies from Pure Reason Revolution as she sings, “Lie upon your ill-gotten gains. See it burn ‘til nothing more remains. And I will guess that you confess all, at the break of day. What else you had spirited away”. She continues, “Inchoate notion. It’s written. Send forth the sword. The wraithful. Faithless in flame. The Word’s my name”. Her voice is surrounded by powerful bass and lead guitar as well as solid drumming. One of my favorite songs on the album.
“Misfortune’s Foe”, opens with powerful guitars and drums. A heavier PRR sound, before Katherine Bark’s vocals, “Stroll out to the vineyard, baby. This one’s for real. God only knows what side you’ll be on. If you’re going, I’m going”. The lead guitar solo in the middle of the song, is a strong statement that this band is ready to take the place of PRR in the progressive metal pantheon.
“Oneira”, opens with pounding drums and lead electric
guitar, before Bark sings, “Held in hands of one asleep. In palms of two hands of
whom I have embraced. This holy body breathing hard. Within a temple glorified.
Trace the pathways, spirals across. The
desert plain is bracing to bear. The final haven’s breast is quite the cost. Which
answers to the wind and is lost”. More of that PRR sound, rocking the
soundscape with stomping drums and heavy guitar. Then Katherine sings, “One furtive mind to calleth forth. One burning vector.
One resurrected fallen course. One grinning spectre!”
It is on the song, “The Hill”, that Katherine’s
voice sounds like Kate Bush reborn. The song is perfect. My favorite; with an
acoustic sound and beat that reminded me of the wonderful acoustic, forest sounds
we all remember from Led Zeppelin IV. Those ancient, Lord of the
Rings images appear through the lyrics. A flock of crows flies by before
Katherine sings, “Lace around the waterside. Base the wonder on the tide. Waste the
fondness on a bygone sight.
Brace the news coming in. Trace a finger underneath. Where the breath of it
begins. Where the heights are running deep. And the omens come to call. When
the Furies claim an hour to weep, O! There’s the winds coming in”.
Imagine
Kate Bush set to Jimmy Page guitar and you are there…wonderful. Lyrics full of
mystery, just like Zeppelin. Katherine sings in round format, “Try and siphon
out the frost. ‘Twixt delusion and deceit. Braid the flaxen with the fronds. Tying
ropes that say the same. When the night’s outbid day’s cost
and colored fortunes fall. There’s the silence coming in. To glaze the dreaming”.
Perfect sounds and lyrics for fall.
“Asylum”, opens as a mono sounding, brooding march, coming closer, then it explodes onto the soundscape in stereo. The lead guitar mimics a bagpipe, standing out in front of the march, as Katherine sings, “You say you would know inside the silence. I say I will go despite the violence. You say you would know across the ocean wide. And I think I will find upon the shoreline”. The PRR sound continues with some inflection from the heaviest lead guitars on the album. The grinding guitars continue, as Katherine sings, “You say you would go defy in silence. I will boldly stride beyond the guidance. Reign in falsifiable defiance. Dance in moonlight and retrace the spirals”.
“Sirens”,
opens with programmed organ sounds, before Katherine returns to her Kate Bush
sound. She sings, “Reason cascading like rain. Truth changes
throughout time. Your song and sailors refrain. You move with grace through
radiant crimes. Your song, your siren song belies. Your lie-sewn motive,
steeped in inglorious sighs. But you got a mouthful of thirst. Sent forth in
your melodious poisonous verse”. Ancient, yet modern at the same time.
“Crawl”, opens with cool guitars
before Katherine roars, “I want you. Time will crawl. Vernal heights. Come to fall. Winter’s
hours”. She continues, “I die to hear you. Wanting to stretch beyond. To go
beyond. Sing to send this song through. Conquering this divide”. Powerful bass,
drums, and lead guitars surround her.
This
is one of the best female vocals, metal progressive albums I have heard all
year. I am sure it will make my favorite albums of the year list. Wonderful,
mysteriously ancient lyrics set to the sounds of Pure Reason Revolution and
Zeppelin-like acoustics. A wonderful discovery.
A powerful debut for Hyaline Grace. I look forward to the follow up!
Track List
- Isaac – 2:06
- Spirited Away – 5:55
- Misfortune’s Foe – 5:59
- Oneira – 5:21
- The Hill – 3:33
- Asylum – 7:08
- Sirens – 4:37
- Crawl – 7:04
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYHg2JA0-BiyTuU5dxRh1PA