While this may be the Finnish septet’s sixth album, it’s my second foray into their material, with Riikka Hatakka making the transition to permanent member of the band from Helsinki since the last album and thereby having them incorporate far more female vocals in their song writing.

They open with the rather heavy but still extremely melodic “Of Love and Curses” where the clean and death vocals of Toni Toivonen and Jussi Hämäläinen merge and diverge over the steady beating of Sami Forsstén’s drums, while Hämäläinen and Mikko Kolari’s guitars have Nino Hynninen playing melodious accompaniment on his keyboard.

And with added melody, “Fear Longing Hope and the Night” maintains a languid pace to convey extra melancholy that suits these cold grey days that we’ve been inundated with of late.

Until the death vocals come in on the title track, “Into That Good Night”, you’d be remiss to think it’s going to be a sweet ballad with flowing leads over Jussi Kirves’s bass lines as it slowly builds its emotional intensity, then fades out with a minute of moving piano.

The piano is joined by the bass, then guitars before Hatakka adds her voice to “Rain”, but it’s only when Toivonen sings that you realise how truly exquisite her voice actually is, as are the heart wrenching leads.

Starting out with heavy guitars and a growl, “Silent Sentinels” quickly quietens down to be slower and more melodic, however the growls do resurface for emphasis when the clean vocals become more anguished and ragged.

The full guitar riffs are punctuated by the root notes on the keyboard along with a gentle buzz of bass, but as “Anamnesis” builds so do the layers of vocals, blending sorrow and anger perfectly.

“Navigator” is the shortest and gentlest track on the album, with its near acoustic guitars and sweetly sung vocal melodies that could quite easily bring a tear to your eye.

“Signs of Affection” is based on poet and lyricist Elli Leppä’s Finnish text “Kiintymyksen eleitä”, and Toivonen’s translation along with the music certainly make this the highlight of the album as it contains all the essential Hanging Garden elements: clean/death/female vocals, rumbling bass over heavy but flowing guitar riff while keyboards full out the tapestry as funereal drums keep the rhythm going.

Definitely worth the listen, or if you prefer there are some videos up on their label’s page for you to enjoy.

 (8/10  Marco Gaminara)

https://www.facebook.com/HangingGardenOfficial

https://hanginggardenlfr.bandcamp.com/album/into-that-good-night