CD review HEXVESSEL ‘Kindred’

‘Kindred’ is an album that has the potential to drag you into a world, being place far away from the here and now and Hexvessel is the band that releases this musical escape.

Hexvessel is the brainchild of musical world traveller Mat McNerney. Born in the UK, McNerney lived in The Netherlands, moved to Norway and found a homebase in Finland. Besides various bands and projects McNerney also found inspiration in nature which became a base for the music he releases under the moniker of Hexvessel.

The band combines Rock and Folk, resulting in a level of musical depth that is touching. Although kept in calmer tones the album spreads a lot of excitement by its love to detail. ‘Kindred’, the new album, walks on paths of psychedelic sounds with a strong link to nature, wrapped in dark and melancholic sounds.

‘Kindred’ is a longplayer that impresses by its musical variety and depth, opened by ‘Billion Years of Being’. Very rhythm-based, the songs a great one for getting the album out of the starting blocks in a good fashion. The journey continues with the calmer and gloomy ‘Demian’ before the magic continues with ‘Fire of the Mind’, a Coil cover, that takes you into a new world with a hypnotic beat.

Hexvessel sketches pictures with their songs. Bigger soundscapes like in ‘Phaedra’ are musical storytelling that demands focus an attention from the listener. ‘Kindred’ isn’t an album that supplies easy-listening music. It’s an enormous depth and songwriting skills that demand focus and attention. If you want to take a break from reality, it’s ‘Kindred’ and earphones that allows you to go on a trip through musical magic forest with songs being the trees and notes being the leaves.