One Day Closer To Yesterday is an album I was really looking forward to, especially since I granted their self-titled debut Shumaun (2015, see review) the maximum score and I was eager to find out if bandleader Farhad Hossain could at least equal this pretentious score. With a steady line-up, consisting of Farhad, guitar player Tyler Kim, bass player Jose Mora and drummer Tanvir Tomal, all ingredients were there to create a worthy successor for their astonishing debut. One Day Closer To Yesterday starts with a relatively short composition; Sensus Divinitatis. A renewed acquaintance with Farhad's delicate voice over a warm bed of keyboards. With The Writing's On The Wall the whole band kicks in, in a pleasant accessible song, filled with great solid drumming, subtle bass and wonderful guitar parts. The topping comes from the vocal parts. I came to love Farhad's voice on the previous album and for the follow-up One Day Closer To yesterday his vocals have only become better. Listen to the fine Tear Is, where elements of Porcupine Tree and elusive electronic parts are noticeable. Fear Is combines smooth intelligent parts with powerful bass driven segments, all in a memorable accessible way. Nafsi Ammara is an absolute killer track; also, the most powerful so far, great guitar riffs go hand in hand with amazing drum patterns. Although the bass lines on this album are not as prominent as they were on Shumaun's debut album, they are still quite impressive as you can witness on this track. City Of Gold is a short atmospheric interlude or intro to Central Station. To be very fair, Central Station is the song Steven Wilson would have wished he had written. It certainly would make his latest effort a lot more interesting than it is now. Central Station is a brilliant, smooth ballad style song, intriguing and haunting at the same time. Brilliant! Prove Yourself and Go both pick up the power again and fuse the band's energy with Farhad's amazing voice. Especially during Go, the atmosphere from the debut returns, perhaps due to the sound of the bass, that has a more prominent place in the mix. The instrumental break during this last tune shown how versatile the band is. Remember Me And I Will Remember You is something special, elements of Tool have entered and combined with delicate Indian elements and make this song differ from the rest, but remains one of the most interesting tracks on the album. So, when you think the album is already quite impressive, perhaps the best thing has yet to come. The final and title track One Day Closer To Yesterday is a more than fifteen minute melting pot of elements, Tool, Porcupine Tree and even delicate parts konnakol pass by. Better check that out on YouTube. Listen to the instrumental breaks, many progressive metal bands would have wished to be able to play these kind of parts. There is no doubt, even tho I really liked the previous compositions, this perfect blend of all the elements present on previous songs have perfectly come together in this final masterpiece. I think Shumaun have come up with the perfect successor of their debut album, the band has matured, but remained the freshness of their debut. Wonderful compositions are perfectly brought to you, all topped by this brilliant song; One Day Closer To Yesterday. ***** Pedro Bekkers (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
