Album Review: Hallas - Conundrum

There's a fine line between being inspired by the past and ripping it off. One is embracing a style of music that spoke to you the way modern trends can't, and the other is a cheap and lazy way of showing you have no creativity of your own. Where do we draw that line? In one place, we draw it when you start wearing capes. Hallas do that in the music video that accompanies the first single from this album, and the appropriation of everything 70s is so obvious, so gimmicky, and so cheap, I can't take them seriously. Wanting to sound more organic is fine, but wholesale copying the entire look and sound of a time before you were even born is pandering to an audience you know is older than you. The capes not only look stupid, they're a big, neon-lit sign saying, "Look how retro we are! Remember this stuff?!"

Needless to say, after seeing that, I was not exactly brimming with enthusiasm to listen to what else Hallas came up with. I got in trouble for saying this, but their nostalgia trip is meaningless to me, since you can't be nostalgic for something you never experienced the first time.

The best bands of this ilk are the ones that take the organic production of the old days, and do something new with them. This is where I once again invoke Graveyard, who have a similarly vintage vibe, but never once in their songwriting do they so obviously point backwards. Everything about Hallas, however, is firmly dedicated to saying the 70s were better than today. Whether it's the drum echo they put on the hits in the spacey bits of "Beyond Night And Day" that are right from the beginning of the 80s reverb morass, or the synths that can't be described as anything but 'wizard rock', Hallas is engaging in musical cos-play.

But that's not all. They also have adopted the attitude of 70s prog, where they feel that long passages of synth notes constitute strong songwriting. Both the vocals and the guitars are entirely bland and forgettable, leaving atmospherics as the driving force of the songs. That leaves the music in a precarious position, sounding like it must look to see through a cataract. The music is hazy, lazy, and unfocused. It flows with a pleasant enough sound, at least until you realize they aren't giving you anything to listen to. I have the same issue with a lot of classic rock, wherein the bands who were trying new sounds and pushing boundaries weren't always writing great songs, because the newness was enough for a lot of listeners. Hallas doesn't have that luxury, so their boring songs are just boring.

And considering that the last three tracks are all between seven and nine minutes, with another a few second away from six, it's a lot of time to be wondering if and when Hallas has anything to say. It's one thing to take from the past, another to steal from the past, but as is true in most cases, all can be forgiven if you do it well enough. Hallas doesn't. This album is chock full of boring songs that don't have power, melody, or even interesting twists and turns. It is a cookie-cutter reproduction of 70s synth prog, and like all reproductions, it's essentially worthless. The only conundrum here is why they put in the time and effort to make this record.