Shumaun – Shumaun (2015)

Arriving today from the USA we have Shaumaun and their progressively oriented mash up of musical styles. In their self-titled debut release, the band presents twelve very melodic tracks that are a bit contrasting from each other, but full of promise, excellent ideas and solid execution.

The album opens with the proggy “A New Revolution”, which is a very entertaining piece that ultimately is just a warm-up for what is to come next. “Miracles of Yesterday” and “You and I Will Change the World” have a more radio-friendly and mainstream vibe, with loud rhythm guitars and solid leads. Being very catchy, this last song has some cool passages, but it also tries to incorporate too many elements, making things a bit awkward when they should have stayed simple as the track’s hook is pretty solid.

Farhad Hossain is a very talented musician but some of the vocal leads seem a bit forced like on “Keep it Together”. The keyboards and overall futuristic vibe of “Keep it Together” would have made for a killer song with a more apt singer. The ballad-esque “When It’s Our Turn” is quite the song with powerful guitar leads and very solid drumming, but the vocals just killed it for us… again. Like we mentioned earlier, there are tons of good ideas spread around in this album and the song “The Drop” features some excellent funky Bass guitar lines and killer solos, but it greatly contrasts with the previous and following track, making this album hard to digest.

Not all is bad, and the song “Sunrise at Midnight” is one of the most solid Middle Eastern-influenced tracks we have heard since Orphaned Land and Myrath. The monumental “The Dream of the Sleeper” is definitely one very solid track, if it was an EP by itself. Overall, Shumaun’s debut release is definitely not fully ready for the spotlight as there are too many loose ends left in each song. The talent is there and the ideas are there, but we believe that the band still needs to work on defining their sound and making all their influences more cohesive. Until then, this album feels half-baked and is probably a bargain bin purchase at best.

Label: Self-Released

Release: November 13th, 2015

Genre: Progressive Rock

Country: USA