Naio Ssaion - Out Loud (13 tracks) +Album Reviews

Naio Ssaion's name doesn't mean anything but it sounds cool

Arthur Digbee | Indianapolis, IN, USA | 01/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Naio Ssaion comes from Slovenia. Slovenia is a small country high in the Alps, with a very small Mediterranean shoreline. It was historically part of the Kingdom of Hungary inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It borders Austria, Croatia, Hungary, and Italy.

That may seem like a strange way to start a review but placing the country helps make sense of the band. Naio Ssaion's style is metal, but it's the metal of the Austrian-German tradition (as opposed to the Dutch-Scandinavian tradition). Its songs are often catchy but generally have 4/4 time signatures and conventional rock structures. It's a female-fronted band that uses occasional death growls for color. Much of this will be familiar to readers of this review.

But . . . Naio Ssaion features a violin. While many symphonic metal bands make use of classic violin, Rok Kolar plays his electric violin in a hard fiddling style. Much of his work reminds me of gypsy-influenced Hungarian songs. Both his solos and much of his countermelody playing have a kind of foot-stomping Csarda feel to them. Again, this is in a metal band in the German-Austrian tradition.

Lead vocals are sung by Barbara Jedovnicky, who does a good job but she's not in the top tier of female metal leads. Having said that, Jedovnicky has a singing style that reminds me of Christina Scabbia's normal singing voice (Scabbia does some different things in higher registers that Jedovnicky doesn't do). Remember, Slovenia borders Italy as well as Austria and Hungary, and that completes our geography of musical influences.

I don't think Jedovnicky sounds at all like Amy Lee, by the way, despite what some other reviewers say. Listen to her in the European context instead of the American one.

But now, back to the band. Metal with a female lead and a crazy fiddler, playing rock and roll. It all works. It's interesting, and at times impressive. Check it out.

"

Most underrated CD of 2006

Andy Jensen | Oklahoma City | 02/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was drifting around myspace one day and came upon Naio Ssaion's page. I listened to each of the 4 songs on their site and was impressed enough to download Out Loud. I was suprised to find even more great songs on it. So much that I couldn't find a single song that I didn't like. That's a rarity even with my favorite bands. I listened this CD several times over the next week, and finally had to buy it as well as a band shirt. Its that good. I'm even trying to get ahold of their debut album, Numedia.

Yes, some will compare them to Evanescence. Really the only similarities are female vocals in a rock band. As has been mentioned before, the electric violin adds quite a lot. Even without it though, Naio Ssaion still has a different, faster, and slightly more complex sound vs Evanescence.

Singer Barbara Jedovnicky has a great voice and manages to change things up from song to song to keep things fresh to the end of the CD. Speaking of which, the last song is "Out of the Great Book of Fairytales". An amazing piece lyrically and musically.

Out Loud is an example of how good modern rock an be."

Douglas Hernandez | 02/03/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"What separates this band from Evanescence (besides geography-these guys are from Slovenia) is mainly the structural song arrangements, the inclusion of a violin, and a few industrial/progressive/gothic parts. Otherwise, you'd swear this is Evanescence's experimental follow-up album. But in the end this is Melodic Hard Rock with many catchy hooks/choruses and songs that could easily be played on the radio. The role of the violin here is just as vital as the role of a guitar, dominating throughout the record and enhancing the music. Without it, this record would probably be extremely unoriginal. Basic, yet energetic female vocals keep the flow of the music listenable. There are some brilliant musical passages like in the song "Shut Up" (1:46-2:14), as well as silly male verbal chants (like on "Blah Blah" 2:56-3:10), but overall the harmlessness and accessibility of the material is enough to satisfy the open-minded ear."

I'd compare them to Lennon, as well

Rahul Jain | Manhattan, New York City, NY | 02/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Many of the songs remind me of Lennon (the woman, not the Beatle... she was named after him). Sure, there's some similarity to Evanescence, especially because of the rather pervasive and heavy nu-metal sound throughout the album. The violin definitely adds an interesting element. While the album isn't flawless, it's an interesting start and is worth at least a listen."

An electric violin? Very cool.

Brian Lindholm | Southwest VA, USA | 05/03/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I first listened to "Out Loud" by Naio Ssaion, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Heck, I didn't even know what to call it. "Out Loud" straddles the line between alternative rock, power metal, and symphonic metal, or perhaps it's something else entirely.

Anyway, as I've listened to it more, it's grown on me. The weakest part of the album is probably the guitar work, which is played in low-toned staccato style that's almost relentless at times. If they do another album, I'd like to see a wider range of guitar-playing styles. That said, the use of the electric violin by Rok Kolar *really* livens things a lot, making the music quite fun.

And the vocals of Barbara Jedovnicky are simply brilliant. She has a surprisingly strong voice that is effectively used in a wide range of styles, and she sings with a lot of energy. Her voice is probably the highlight of the album. Stand-out tracks include "The Mirror" and "Bow Link in E minor". "Static", "Miss You", "Shut Up", "Blah-Blah", "Blind Date", "Can't Hear You", and "At Ease" are also quite good.

Naio Ssaion isn't the best female-fronted rock band out there, but they're quite good. "Out Loud" is worth a listen. 4 stars."

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