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Hadal Sherpa — Memoria
(Bandcamp no#, 2025, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-01-05

Memoria Cover art

It’s a pretty impressive feat for a band to release three consecutive recordings where each one is as powerful as all the ones before it, but Finnish four-piece Hadal Sherpa has done exactly that, matching the power and grandeur of their previous release Void Weaver (2025), which itself was every bit as solid as their self-titled debut from 2017. Apparently between 2021 and 2025 the band recorded enough material for four full albums, much of which has yet to be released. The band is Vesa Pasanen on lead and rhythm guitars, bass, synth, and percussion, as well as composing all the material, and handling the engineering and mixing; Ville Kainulainen plays rhythm guitar, Ilja Juutilainen is on drums and percussion, and Pi Viana contributes flute and mostly wordless vocals. This time out there is no saz or oud, elements that gave the previous album a bit of ethnic flavoring, and no guest players listed this time either, but the six tracks herein rock no less. The closing title track is a twelve-minute powerhouse that goes everywhere the listener is not expecting, and as much as any other, defines what the band is all about. Album opener “Omen” makes good use of synths during the opening minute, but quickly finds a restless rock groove to wander around within, and I could almost swear I hear some cello and violin on this cut as well. Without a break “Caligo” launches at the end of the opener, burning with intensity, it’s almost like the two are just different parts of a longer epic, with the vocals here providing some ethnic character. Things turn gentle and dreamy for the highly melodic “Insomnia,” much of that character by way of keyboards, a track that is vaguely reminiscent of early Floyd during their soundtrack period. The album is rounded out by the somewhat psychedelic “Maeror” with its intense build-up at the end, and “Omina” that flows out of it almost seamlessly, with the vocals being the highlight (and more cello and viola arrangements). Now with the sad news: Shortly after the album was completed last summer, Vesa Pasanen passed away unexpectedly, and given that he wrote all the material and was the band’s de-facto leader and multi-instrumentalist, it remains to be seen how the band will carry on after all the material they’ve recorded with him is exhausted. Without Syd, nobody thought Pink Floyd had a future, but we were all wrong. In the meantime, Memoria stands as strong as anything Hadal Sherpa has ever done.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Hadal Sherpa

More info
http://hadalsherpa.bandcamp.com/album/memoria

 

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