A historical release: Northern Haze's ᓯᓈᒃᑐᖅ (1986)

Northern Haze was a quartet of Inuit musicians from the remote hamlet of Igloolik who had collaborated in various bands throughout the seventies before joining forces in Northern Haze. The band finished second in a talent show in Iqaluit but managed to attract enough attention to be given the chance to record its debut record in Ottawa just one year after its foundation. It took roughly another year for this debut album to see the light of day and the band played festivals in Yellowknife and Vancouver to support the release. This album is believed to be the first-ever indigenous-language rock album. The band made its dream come true with the release of this album but members of their community criticized the four young men for mixing traditional Inuit music and tales with contemporary Western music somewhere between heavy metal, hard rock and country music.

The most outstanding element about the album are the melodic vocals that are inspired by a cool rock and roll spirit. The energetic guitar solos vary between blues and hard rock genres and are performed with passion even though the skills are still fairly limited. The rhythm section is the steady backbone of the raw record. The four musicians were supported keyboarder Ed Simm and Randall Prescott on harmonica during the recording sessions and their instruments add even more diversity to an already interesting release.

Highlights on this passionate debut record are the short and heavy opener ''Qailaurit'' inspired by early doom and heavy metal, the vivid ''Puigo'' with its outstanding guitar solo and atmospheric keyboard layers, the only track with English lyrics entitled ''Trust'' that comes around as haunting country ballad with melancholic piano sounds and peaceful acoustic guitar sounds and heartwarming timeless closing country tune ''Uvaguk'' with its beautiful harmonica sounds that could easily play in any pub around the world. Despite the rough production and the northern background of the band, this album has an infectious passion and warmth. 

Metal purists might have some trouble with this record that combines blues rock, country rock, doom metal, hard rock and heavy metal but any rock music enthusiast with an open mind should listen to this historical record that has stood the test of time and still sounds particularly entertaining nowadays. The band didn't have the financial means to record another record for a long period of time and seemed to have fallen apart when their bassist died of cancer and their singer got murdered about a decade ago. The band however reunited with two new members only two years ago and actually released its sophomore record thirty-two years after its first strike. The adventurous rock and roll spirit that led to the band's first genre-breaking output has been rekindled. The rock and roll flame is still burning in the Far North. Let's hope it will never be extinguished.

Final rating: 80%

Listen to the album via Bandcamp: https://northernhaze.bandcamp.com/releases