Band:	Hällas
Album:	Conundrum
Style:	Hard rock, Progressive rock
Release date:	February 14, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Ascension
02. Beyond Night And Day
03. Strider
04. Tear Of A Traitor
05. Carry On
06. Labyrinth Of Distant Echoes
07. Blinded By The Emerald Mist
08. Fading Hero

Why choose between 70s prog rock and 80s synthwave when you could have both?

It is not often that I review an album that has been released more than two months ago, so there must be something that this album is doing extremely well (or extremely wrong) to warrant me pulling it back to the queue. And I am generally not particularly fond of retro music, whether OSDM, hard rock, prog rock, so as much as I enjoy it, it needs to have a special something to be both extremely retro and impress me. Well, Hällas call their music "adventure rock", and who am I to disagree? They probably traveled the world and the seven seas. Everybody is looking for something, and I'm looking for some damn great prog rock, and Hällas deliver in spades, and with massive amounts of cheese.

Conundrum is quite unashamed in how blatantly it emulates the 70s and 80s, but what is their saving grace is: 1) they are really damn great musicians and songwriters; 2) those synths also quite often unashamedly emulate 80s synthwave. So basically it feels like a meeting of the two famous retro worlds: the 70s and the 80s. It also helps that Hällas feel like a notch above most bands who only have the ambition to tackle one of those eras. It somehow feels like one of those 70s prog rock bands trying to come to terms that it's the 80s now, but with the hindsight of what makes each of those eras great, Hällas can write the blend of styles a bit more effectively, though without the star power and the excitement of a band of the time actually venturing into new sounds. Of course, it's not just the synths that sound 80s, but those are thes you notice most clearly.

Before this, Hällas released another album and an EP, so this is a closer in the trilogy it seems, one that ventures into space and beyond. There is some subtle psych rock influence, enough to make the space theme a bit more tangible. The music is bordering on hard rock quite often, but more of the Jethro Tull or Blue Öyster Cult type. So add to the progressive long songs, just enough slightly Iron Maiden-esque guitar harmonies, some immersive synths, and obviously the soft vocals, and you have quite a winning formula. And since with this album they extended their palette to include the sounds of the 80s, maybe next album will have the sounds of the 90s, with some neo-psychedelia or shoegaze to enhance their space adventures.

It doesn't really claim to be anything more than what it is, and for what it is it certainly doesn't disappoint. It's "adventure rock". Embark!