Nami – Fragile Alignments (2011)

Hailing from Andorra of all places, today we have a very interesting release with Nami’s “Fragile Alignments” album. Mixing everything from Cynic, Opeth to Meshuggah, this band delivers a lot of band for your buck. For almost 60 minutes the band delivers waves of powerful riffs perfectly arranged in a manner that only big name bands have been able to deliver after years of trying.

Opening with the progressive instrumental “Awakening from Lethargy”, the band nicely generates some momentum before leveling your ears with the complex “The Inner Man: Materia”. In this track, the Meshuggah worship is evident, and Nami does a great job in graciously pulling off complicated segments. The guitar riffing is outstanding and the drumming is very precise, letting the vocals vent off with some heavy growls while the music is pummeling through.

“The Growing – Earth”, delivers more an Opeth-esque atmosphere, but still maintains a certain level of originality that distinguishes Name from the rest of Opeth copycats. The clean vocals are pretty solid, but the pummeling riffs and growls combination is what makes this song more engaging. The band goes a great job in crating very intricate tracks that will surprise you even after several listens. “Oppression and Understanding – Fire”, “Loop of Truth (The Link)”, “Cosmical Beginning – Air” and “Conscience of the Void” all feature a wide variety of melodic/acoustic sections that nicely connect high-intensity riffing-rich passages.

Closing the album, we have the Cynic-esque “The Inner Man: Antimateria” and “The Pattern”. Both of these songs are very mellow and nicely crafted. The guitars are magical since the progressive sections are very subtle and melodic. The clean vocals are very ethereal (similar to Cynic) and the changes to Meshuggah-styled passages are perfectly introduced.

If you are looking for a band that has a knack of making complicated things look easy and sound even better, look no further and get Nami’s debut release “Fragile Alignments”. This young band has a sound that easily rivals any big-name band and they should be heard. Every song presented in this release is crafted to perfection and commands more than a few listens to fully digest and enjoy.

Release: May 17th, 2011

Country: Andorra