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“The Astral Seer” is the first single from Hällas debut album “Excerpts From a Future Past”. The track opens up the album that is released on the 13th October on The Sign Records. The swedish quintet has adopted the progressive sound from their earlier release and their unique way of creating a powerful, catchy, yet complex sound and taken it a step further, calling their genre “adventure rock”. The Swedes were praised for their EP released in 2015 and their new concept album contains seven storytelling tracks about seers, a knight on a quest for answers and the fall of a once great city.
Invisible Orange wrote the following about new Hällas single The Astral Seer:
“Hällas understand the inherent power, and unabashed radness of guitar harmonies. The Swedish prog quintet toss out harmonies like party favors on their new single “The Astral Seer” from their upcoming debut full length Excerpts From The Future Past. Guitarists Alexander Moraitis and Marcus Petersson weave in and out of “The Astral Seer” with counter melodies anytime they’re given the opportunity. The song is an ever flowing stream of notes, all lightly crisped but not full distorted as to give each instrument clarity. Nicklas Malmqvist, the band’s keyboardist, is responsible for Excerpts From The Future Past’s mix as well as some of the finer moments on “The Astral Seer”. Not only does Malmqvist’s organ playing give Hällas’s guitarists a warm bed for their bouncing harmonized triplets, but his squelching synthesizer also gets the spotlight during the song’s twisty-turny bridge. That bridge, full of syncopation and off kilter rhythms, is where Hällas prove their prog bona fides (if that D&D-ass cover didn’t seal the deal) but the surging pace of the verses and the band’s dedication to making each passage as gloriously harmonized as possible mean that they will have no problem appealing to fans of old-school metal the world over.”
Read it all here.
For their new album the members shared interest in the great storytelling of early heavy metal and progressive rock bands led to the decision to create a concept album. Using organs, synthesizers, medieval-sounding twin guitars and dynamic drums and bass, their inventive style of songwriting with progressive passages intertwined with a steady foundation of heavy rock followed accordingly – all accompanied by the expressive and wistful vocals of Tommy Alexandersson. Together, these ingredients blend into this timeless, one of a kind album with a story set in the middle ages of an alternative universe, following a seer who possessed forces previously unknown to man. As the rumor of his powers spread, the story proceeds.
The album is produced and mastered by the band’s organist Nicklas Malmqvist at Treasure Sound Studio. “While we as a band adopt a “more-is-more” approach to the songwriting, the focus of the production was to simplify and enabling the dynamics of the elements to let every piece of instrument bring forth the ambience to the story the album is telling, put into words by the unique vocals” says Nicklas. The essence of the music is captured and illustrated by Nightjar Illustrations as seen on the front cover.
Track list:
1. The Astral Seer
2. Repentance
3. Nebulon’s Tower
4. The Golden City of Semyra
5. Star Rider
6. Shadow of the Templar
7. Illusion Sky
Hällas are:
Tommy Alexandersson: Bass and vocals
Alexander Moraitis: Guitars
Nicklas Malmqvist: Organs and synthesizers
Marcus Petersson: Guitars
Kasper Eriksson: Drums
Copyright © 2017 The Sign Records
