Album Review ~ The Yagas ~ 'Midnight Minuet'

With the release of their full-length debut, Midnight Minuet, alt-metal band The Yagas racked up high streams and airplay this month on Spotify and hard rock stations. The quintet serves ethereal sounds of high emotion and haunting riffs that seem to soar from another plane. This is all deepened by their frontwoman, acclaimed actress Vera Farmiga whose vocals growl and croon with mystique and a longing that leaves listeners spellbound. To add to the band’s strangeness, there’s the origin of their name, deriving from a Slavic folk tale of the witchlike Baba Yaga who feeds off the souls of the deceased, protecting the fountains of life.

Folklore aside, let’s jump into this atmospheric new release.

“The Crying Room,” stirs in with an industrial shoe-gaze riff accompanied by soft synths. It’s a solid opener, luring us into the album. A long intro sets the mood. Farmiga’s wispy rasps console and narrate, building up powerful wails across a banging breakdown. “The Crying Room” delivers you into a fever dream, surreal and metaphysical. The rhythm while heavy is soothing with a violent undertone.

The grungy chopping riffs of “I Am,” turns up the dial a notch. Lyrics rise up catatonic and forceful, delivered like a hex. The second track is less shoe gaze and more hard metal, a gleaming dirty sound.

Electrifying synth and industrial styled riffs kickstart “Life of a Widow.” Lyrics pose visual imagery, morbid and consuming. When the chorus fades, a suspenseful bass takes over. Sorrow and yearning meld together beneath the heaviness, subtle undertones that don’t go unnoticed. “Life of a Widow” fades out with piano, a melodically devastating track.

Soaring with depraved energy, “Anhedonia,” struts in manic and chocked full of grit. Not breaking from the thematic elements of Midnight Minuet, the fourth track breaks out into an intensifying electric solo, coursing through the bridge with a power-metal influence, sounding more like something one might hear out of one of the rock clubs off the Sunset Strip back in the day.

Farmiga’s airy croons lead the next track “Pendulum.” Beginning with a melody as soft as a haunting lullaby, like much of their work, it soon drives past haunting into powerful, building up as it goes. Those whispery harmonies grow into raspy wails, accusing in their delivery.

“Charade,” plays with an acoustic strum and flowing strings in the background. Clever and sensual lyrics invite listeners in, compelling in projection and emotional expression. “Charade” fits the gothic-romance element of storytelling perfectly.

Fiery guitar licks start off “Bridle,” then catapult into synth and an urban beat. Strange and eerie, but bursting with a sense of sexual energy, “Bridle” is thrilling and energetic, a whimsigoth cyber beat that moves you to sway and break free.

Choppy rhythm, grimy pulsating beats, and sneering vocals make up “Pullover.” A little punk rock, a little post-dark-wave, this track feels as ferocious and otherworldly as early protopunk bands of the sixties and seventies, raw and psychedelic with plenty of vampiric undertones.

“She’s Walking Down,” blares in fast and manic. Industrial beats are back with pounding drumbeats that infiltrate and take over. Rough and rowdy, seething with high energy, “She’s Walking Down” is one of the top-rated tracks off the album, and it’s easy to see why with the harsh vocals and slam-metal riffs that mesh with keyboard synth and house party beats. A music video was released months prior to the album release, showing a horror-thriller scene that makes the music pop even more.

Ending on the title track, “Midnight Minuet” compiles all the harrowing emotions and angsty energy of the earlier songs into a devastating conclusion. Haunting wails like a siren’s song and heavy breakdowns that shake the earth, there is a lot to unload here. Farmiga’s vocals serenade us one last time while the music evokes a moody blend of shoegaze meets heavy metal.

To put it simply, The Yagas are a band not to be underestimated. Their stylistic morbid attire screams to be heard, for a place among the metal acts of today. The dynamic individuality of each member from guitarist Mark Visconti’s power-heavy riffs to the furious drumming style of Jason Bowman, each piece is crafted to come together in a melodic metal odyssey. Midnight Minuet stands not only as an impressive debut album, but a work of art among today’s hard rock scene.

I’m Music Magazine Writer Alice Kearney