Twelve of Confusion - Worldsun review

Year : 2013 to 2016
Genre : Modern Metal/Black Metal
Label : Independent
Origin : Finland
Official site: > - here - <

Black metal has numerous fields of operation that it could work supremely well on, and one of these production commitments deliberately seek to engulf the listener into the mere remnants of what once might have been a perfectly valid set of instruments, but THEN came The Black, and took most of the volumetric essence with it.

This approach emerges excellent at conveying a sense of the nietzschenian superloneliness, as you most often feel that there is something to intently behold and secretly scrutinize beneath the layer of black, but you, as listener, should not be entirely comfortable at the prospect of the veil being removed. Finland-based Twelve of Confusion is a firm admirer and practitioner of said sub-genre of voyeuristic soul-torment, and their monster length double CD effort "Worldsun" comes to burn some well defined holes into Carl Sagan's fabric of the cosmos AND into your soul, if you think you happen to have one. Let us see the temperature posthaste - read on to know more.

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Mr. Fastfinger - In Motion review

Year : 2012
Genre : Instrumental Rock
Origin : Finland
Label : Mad Guitar Records
Official site : > - here - <

Mr. Fastfinger is a mainly instrumental-, massively guitar centered affair armed with a bravely-, eloquently expressed fascination towards the experimental language of Frank Gambale and Steve Vai, primarily. Think of jazz fusion that has the superb capacity of not taking itself lethally serious, BUT being relentless and scientifically serious at - well - not being serious. To put these contradictory phrases into more easily decipherable perspectives, think of the following compositional behavior : the music on the disc claims and praises the liberty to submit to any sort of dainty harmonic passage for a brief-but-sufficient amount of time, - I dare say that the harmonic passages always are elegant on the disc, in fact, I think they get better and better as the delivery progresses - yet the high frequency solo detail that the disc equally is about, has a highly adorable tendency to go top-of-the-heat quality on super-numerous occasions, when you scrutinize them from the angle of "mere" melodic power, and, from the angle of the articulated technical maturity and rigor they are executed with.

"Mountain Mover" is a definite highlight for me to showcase these traits, for example. I think this track makes Frank Gambale a happy man. See? He did not comment so far, suggesting to me to sit on an umbrella and open it. If you are familiar with the vastly significant experimental contributions of said virtuoso, - Steve Vai's Flexible Leftovers and Gambale's Coming To Your Senses both especially come to mind when having ears soaked into this stimuli - then you already have a silhouette for an impression to fill out later via an actual listening experience. Read on to find out more about this.

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Promotional Spot : Mr. Fastfinger - In Motion

Year : 2012
Genre : Instrumental Rock
Origin : Finland
Label : Mad Guitar Records
Official site : > - here - <

Press release :

Mr.Fastfinger, the guitar Sensei, is back with a new adventure. New album “In Motion” is beyond a classical instrumental rock album. Energy, expression, feeling, emotion and guitar! “In Motion” are 12 compositions that flow perfectly together. The careful selection of glorious musical themes alternates with very intense, fast and emotional guitar solos, very loud riffs with tribal percussion, ambient keyboards and an amount of exotic instruments unmatched in the instrumental rock genre.


Featuring guests: Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Thomas Blug and Timo Kämäräinen.
CD also includes a special fretboard game. And a secret link to access jam tracks and transcriptions to inspire your practicing and playing to new dimensions!

In Motion is released by Elektrik Pyjamas and distributed by the Mad Guitar Records.

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Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk

Year : 2012
Genre : Melodic Death Metal Alternative Metal with Disco temper
Label : Redhouse Finland Music Publishing
Origin : Finland
Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Tracedawn's Lizard Dusk is as accessible melodic death metal that it might also be regarded as a form of radio friendly discopop music. The data on this LP is crystal clear, polished glitter audio contained within the continuous guard of gigantic rhythm guitars reigning at both channels, and the name of the prey of this sonic hive-entity always is radio friendly accessibility. Nothing else, nothing less, nothing more. This is very friendly bubblegum music, dare I say, cartoon melodic death metal with a discopop temper, and the only thing that will constantly remind you of its death character, - beside the gargantuan rhythm guitars - are the growls and screams. These vocal transmissions are delivered along a deep register, and they are sounding much more convincing in my opinion, than the neurotic high pitched screaming that also is widely popular.

The discopop melodic death metal is constantly colored by segments of alternative metal interludes. These additions are rendered by clean singing, and almost always rely on wall of sound power chord structures, showing relatively mixed results in their success factor. Some of these alternative melodic chorus-hooks are decent, some are less so, and I personally did not find a single one that can measure up to an instant classic hook the Mors Subita debut LP is virtually packed full of. Read on to find out more about this release.


It is an admirable quality of this disc that it is honest and quick at revealing the central sonic rhetorics on board within minutes. The following sentence is not meant to be a negativistic one, quite the contrary. If you have heard one song from this track, you pretty much have heard every other one, as all the songs herein rely on the same template structure, on the same blueprint. The music on Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk is not "just" catchy discopop melodic death metal. It is engineered to be it, and risks are not taken, nor their nearness is tolerated. In fact, this is the first melodic death metal spin I'm aware of that might give you a sugar overdose, as result of its discopop character.

Since the whole album is stable as a rigorous product that never deviates from its aspirations, evidently flatter moments are nonexistent on it. But superb moments are hard to come by, too. My personal favorite of the album is track 4, called "The Crawl". After a nice intro from the beginning to 1:45, the album brings all things it ever will, with top efficiency. Sci-fi pop synths and high frequency sci-guitars wonder around on both channels, disciplined rigorously by a monstrous bass, while all these entities are bending to the will of monochrome cybernetic drums. Then the monumental rhythm guitars are coming in to back the vocals up. Discopop song structure with the tools of melodic death metal. It is a legit thing to do, what I'm getting at is my percept that the Lizard Dusk LP is not capable to bring this top form all the way. Let us see why.

My more bitter qualms and subsequent non-satisfaction are relating to the alternative metal hooks. I love alternative metal, too, if it is worth to be loved. But try introduce a cheap alternative metal hook to me, I will see it coming a galactic mile away. The song I have just been telling you about, equally has an alternative metal hook, and it sucks purple donkey dick, I'm sorry to hear. Yet, do not let yourself be talked off from this decent discopop melodic death delivery until you have heard a track of it. Once again : discopop melodic death metal with zero risks taken. It does not plant you into the wall like Mors Subita, but comes to you as an extremely easily accessible take on the style. Some will dismiss it as a discopop sellout, personally, as long as it sounds thoughtful and good, I don't feel the need to use such harsh words or invade such a position. Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk always sounds good, and sometimes sounds thoughtful. "Sometimes" is more prevalent than "often" though. So a 6.9 will have to do right now.

Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Swallow the Sun - Emerald Forest and the Blackbird review

Year : 2012
Genre : Melodic Death Doom Hybrid with Atmospheric Black and mild Ambient tendencies
Label : Spinefarm, Svart Records
Origin : Finland
Rating : 9.0 / 10

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The Emerald Forest and the Blackbird LP from Finland's Swallow the Sun is a delivery with such pronounced ambitions as you ever dare to witness without skepticism invading your features in the process. The release simultaneously weighs in as a full blown sonic fairy tale with all its audio capacities to efficiently caress and feed the soul, yet the whole narrative content is far from the everyday average perspective of the idealist, and, as result of this, the character of the music oftentimes gets taken through more aggressive warfare than the most tame sections of the release are consisting of. These detours are numerous, their persistence is commanding, and their occurrence especially is frequent at the beginning section of the declaration, then a pacing flows into a narrative field with more interest and fondness exhibited towards the calmer register. Be wary and/or happy, as : the spectrum of the revealed moods and musical behaviors indeed are unusually wide, and the release has ample time to make thorough use of those with its gargantuan length of 66 minutes. Guys, let's talk about the music.


Emerald Forest and the Blackbird, as an intact and complete delivery, shows the character of a masterfully produced mid-tempo fairy tale package with sections of increased intensity embedded into it to offer variation. These intense sections are not seeking to rival the hilarious comic book heft and aggression of fellow countrymen Mors Subita, in fact, they most often dress into musical patterns that dials in the percepts of intense atmospheric black metal, performed though with instruments of melodic death, all in the spirit of the super-polished sound of recent times. (Like time would give a fuck if it is recent or not.)

As hinted previously, these thorough intermissions of more intense character are "but" - logically - intermissions in the true soul of the contribution, that which is an intriguing-, natural-sounding blend between doom metal and atmospheric quasi-black ambient. The disc takes the fortunate liberty of going supermild during these segments, but it never falls to the other side of the horse, either. It is mellow, yet briskly produced delicacy-music with a sound-, yet assuaging mid-tempo character, primarily reliant on a guitar-centered tone that keeps a gracious and stone-cold sober focus on the flow of the dangerous fairy tale itself.

The record is robust, and, as mentioned, marathonian in nature. The acumen to draw a fabric of flamboyant variation all the way through this length, does not prove to be sufficient in my opinion, which prevents this LP under this roof to score above the 9.0 mark. Emerald Forest and the Blackbird is a flawless piece of art when it is riding on its very own peak moments, and it is heartwrenching to see how it subjects itself to radical suicide attempts on your helpless watch, situated behind a bullet proof glass on numerous occasions. I will give you only one example of such behavior, because my intent to attempt to degrade your initial percepts of this record is sub-mininal. What is up with the spoken words on this release? They suck purple donkey dicks, and the narrator does not sound menacing or anything like that. He sounds like he needs to clear his throat and re-record the fucking sequence to reveal the silly little thing called "performance" as opposed to revealing the silly little thing called "throat disease".

Do not let yourself be put off of this release, no matter what consensus tries to persuade you of. This particular review seeks to assure you that the content of the disc is top of the heat, and its only significant fault is its tendency to miss out on the spot it better to stop at than to fade away after. As such, Emerald Forest and the Blackbird has all the charms and charisma of a young bardess, and the only shortcoming is that the bardess relentlessly gives to you everything she has, then she gives it again and again and again until she gave you absolutely everything, and now she has no dignity left to keep. Sometimes less sound and more silence is more eloquent.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Mors Subita - Human Waste Compression review

Year : 2011
Genre : Melodic Death Metal with Groove and Thrash tendencies
Label : Violent Journey Records
Origin : Finland
Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Mors Subita - the band's name translates to "Sudden Death" - brings to you a fervently hefty variant of its operative subject matter, which is none other than the eloquent kind of comic book melodic death metal proposed by fellow countrymen Rainroom. The element that I think works best on the Rainroom record I just linked the review of, is virtually omnipresent on this particular LP, so my delight is considerable. (And not slim.)

Imagine a neoclassical music lingo that sports the inherent elegance and beauty of its mere own nature, yet it occupies the position of wanting to obtain the hefty-heavy melodic/harmonic hook for itself as backup as soon as possible. The sense of power metalic epic determination is being put on ridiculous dosages of war drugs herein, and so the music itself impertinently taunts both hope and hopelessness until these opposing entities end up in a no holds barred fight, - hopelessness is a tough motherfucker of the delivery - and you are invited to be the observer of the puzzling event. This particular method of orchestrating fragile classical gloom and intricacy with the rumble of wartanks is a prime fascination of the whole album, and it also is the aspect that makes the wartank-ride a truly enjoyable one. Read on to find out more about this fine LP.


The behavior of the record brings to mind massive groove metal connotations via its sheet temper, yet it must be pointed out that the groove on display is operating in a more wide spectrum than "just" the neoclassical register. When it deviates from the neoclassical moods, fueled by the intent to go bluesy for a bar or two, the re-arrival of the fragile punishment always is a superb trade-off to greet, and its subsequent dismissal equates to the reinvigorated return - and related charm - of its bluesy peer.

The release has a set of favorite musical sub-attitudes it is sporting along the way, showing frequent willingness to color its numerous hooks with a thrashy temper, and looking similarly good in mid-tempo, courtesy of the smartly sculpted riffcraft that is an immediate trademark of the release. It is not an exaggeration to state that Human Waste Compression is LOADED with hooks, top to bottom. And smart, beautiful ones at that. This diligent-, at heart experimental propensity is toppled by superb choruses that are gracing your awareness as intact, super-efficient peak moments you can hop on no problem. If you don't want that, they will destroy Nibiru and Uranus. The choruses are deeply melodic in character, as result of the rich harmonic environments they are unfolding in. Talking about the summoned harmonic environments, the release weighs in as immediate super-heavyweight in that department. If you are not impressed by the inventiveness of the harmonic fabrics in tracks like SCS, Entrance to Sickness or titular Human Waste Compressor, then I don't know what to tell you. Human Waste Compressor is a good sample-song, by the way, as it immediately starts out with a tremendous fucking harmonic fabric, engaging 111% of the band's full capacity.

Don't be too swift to relate to the term "melody" in the context of this album. The fronter, thank God & Co., does not even THINK about going melodic. He gutturals/growls the momentary prime misery no problem, yet his presence is situated in a harmonic environment that always is ready and able to simultaneously reveal a fine blend between neoclassical musical beauty/fragility and groove metalish neurosis and rampancy. Full-musculature-, real deal harmonic passages and grooves full of beauty and ruthless efficiency are abundant herein. That is the central idea, and the closely related ultimate charm of the record, of course.

It's getting uncomfortable that I can't kick into this album with a clear conscience, but, hell, the track palette is pretty well varied and tolerates no bitchwhining in pink lingerie about filler songs or anything similar. The release is a stable delivery with legit-, tightly focused content all the way through, and you need to do yourself a favor, and soak your ears into two or three tracks a time to form defendable initial impressions of the massive whole of this delivery. Many have tried to create this style-, this temper of music, but not many have succeeded yet, or please educate me if I'm wrong about this. Rainroom ALMOST did, but - in my opinion - came short via a sloppily focused mid-section. Hellfrost failed legendarily. Insomnium - then again from Finland - came forth with a brilliant release in 2011, yet the One for Sorrow LP has a much more unforgiving temper than THIS baby. This Mors Subita release is a monster and it came to kill. But it has its balladistic moments, too, and those are superb stuffs, too. The efficient combination of rabid groove and neoclassical gloom brings you a release that either puts a spiky cyborgdemon with no love in it at all on your sorry hide, or, it simply makes you one. The choice is yours.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Simulacrum - Master of the Simulacrum review

Year : 2011
Genre : Progressive Metal
Label : Inverse Records
Origin : Finland
Rating : 7.0 / 10

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It is very easy to understand where Finland's Simulacrum is coming from : imagine a relatively life-capable blend of Dream Theater and Symphony X, add a tint of - BUT! a tint of - super-fruitful technical deathmetal, and - kind of - spoil it with blunt vocal performance on top. The album starts out eminently, keeping this form up with a sexy blend of middleweight metal rhetorics and caressing synth work á lá Faith No More. The music though, is of entirely different fabric, showing rabid faithfulness to a ripe-, but relatively scantly realized inner image of melodic progressive metal. Production values guarantee a slim frame with elegant musculature, and, as such, the sonic mass of this delivery hardly if ever seeks to intimidate your receivers. The least efficient ingredient, in my opinion, is the vocal contribution, but nothing that can't be perfected later on. The melodic route-decisions fail to touch me. Exceptions are present, but nothing beyond that.

The album shows a variety of different key characteristics, - apart from the dramatic teddybear singing - as the delivery no doubt seeks to serve you all the ingredients established by its key inspirators : Dream Theater, Symphony X. Fortunately, the album has the capacity to render certain focal elements with great success, while other elements are teaming up with the Hippopotamus League to indulge mercilessly in any fashion and in any substance that it feels comfortably for THEM. Read on to find out more about this decent progressive metal attempt.


The melodic body of work herein is very orthodox progressive me(t)al with the highly unsurprising intent of seeking out the field between power metal and hard rock that is bordering on dramatic musical, but the collision between harmonies and the super-persistent vocal work lacks that special-, ripe playfulness factor that hacks your nervous system on spot and urges you in real time to revisit a track. Such a sentence shouldn't be hanging in the air without justification, so I attempt to clarify my claim. Listen to the track "The Re-Formation Show" from Anubis Gate's latest album, and hear - in my opinion - utterly playful and ripe progressive metal. If the chorus of that song does not strike you as brilliant, then I don't know what to tell you. This Simulacrum album, while enthusiastic as an adolescent around a rubber porn star, has a whole lot of galaxies to cover yet to be regarded with the same ave. But it has 6 minutes and 15 seconds of jawdropping stimuli, so stick around.

I don't want to be (all that much) evil with this record, so I will tell you the elements I think it shows superb form, even bursts of brilliance with and through. It mainly is via the experimental tendencies. These leanings are far from being integral and find no cunning to reign fruitfully homogeneous in their efficiency. Laboriously built, sweat-reeking pseudo-complexity - piano and distorted guitar playing the same phrase in unison??, WOW, you rascal!, you!, you KNOW how to treat a snob! < - irony. - oftentimes gets mistaken herein for true experimental compositional work ready to fuck your mind for its own enjoyment like this monster does, and the band has an occasional hard time distinguishing their solid moments from self-indulgent wankery that is happening for THEIR enjoyment and definitely not for yours.

Now for the worse parts.

The album, I think, looks the worst when it seeks for the epic sorrow of James LaBrie and finds the horrid thing, and it looks best when the experimental segments have a continuous narrative to tell, and not just casual experimentation of interconnected elements of complexity that have no actual knowledge or shared experiences about each other at all. One song I find absolutely stellar on this album, is track number 5, called "Flagiston". It is a hyper-complex psyche-robber sci-fi instrumental revolving around swarms of nanobots chasing your hide to rewrite your DNA. (As a start.) The band shows surprising ripeness and top tier chops herein, and a clear set of correlations is notable between the more tame instrumental language they speak in this song and that of Blotted Science, Obscura and Gorod. In other words, this track, called Flagiston, is as superb of a technical death metal build as it is a fabric with tight progressive elements. The definite peaking of the album, and, if this LP would bring this quality all the way throughout, then I naturally would have no other choice than to rate it well above 9. Not that it is that important. Remember, the art always is superior to its miserable critic, no exceptions.

The band knows how to entertain you in legit fashion, but are not always willing to pay that price on this record, in my opinion, and sometimes satisfies with alibi. The music on this release ain't as serious-, nor as heavy or thrilling YET as in the company of Anubis Gate or as on Symphony X's latest, and, the haunting feel of the 1986 metal pop festival is an enthusiastic invitee of the developments, too, hiding among a set of much more tolerable-, even likable entities. With such delicate deliveries as Flagiston on board though, you definitely want to keep an eye on this promising progressive metal band.

Rating : 7.0 / 10

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To Die For - Samsara review

Year : 2011
Genre : Gothic Metal with a Groove Metal temper
Label : Independent
Origin : Finland
Rating : 6.9 / 10

Finland's To Die For is barging to your private world with quite a well established set of basic intents, and there is not much if any dangers - nor radical affections - ahead to deviate along from the primer directions this release is hasty and enthusiastic to reveal right from its efficient beginning.

"Kissing the Flames" is a superstrong album opener with an accessible nature that shows subtlety in its coarse-, but very meticulously realized elements of pure brute muscle charm. The song has a variety of well defined meat hooks laid strategically in its fabric, and the primordial agenda to deliver the furious Goth rant with a groooooove! fucking met'lllllllll! temper, works in a sanely calculated fashion that serves the plan steadily, without endangering your awareness levels towards any direction whatsoever. If you want, read on to find out about the other tracks, too, but don't forget your coffee.


Track number 2, "Damned Rapture" is a convoluted mid tempo build with a hint of a middle eastern tone surfacing up in it from time to time. The song is an efficient initial mixture of the family friendly form of Metallica and Muse, as the song's verse structure truly is a soulful and inventive flow with top notch harmonic structure, and only the drunk football fan chorus takes away from it. Other than that, nice contribution with an equal tendency to slowly groove-, AND "sludge" it out. The climax of the song has a more intense rumbling going on, but nothing too serious, as it is not given the route to thrash anything along.

"Cry for Love" sports a great romantic punk chorus - yes, turns out there IS such a thing, ask Sid Vicious. This is a song greatly inspired by Billy Idol's White Wedding, have no doubt about it. This song has a sexy grasp on the ears with solid 4/4 pummeling and decent riffcraft, making way to the aforementioned punk romance chorus with great anticipation factor. This peak sequence, in my opinion, is pretty efficient and integral for its character, and seems to solidify the presumption that, once a band has legit ideas (to steal), the "standard" methods to make it heavy, are more than sufficient to pull off a tremendous job. This traditionally instrumentalized song brings everything you could ever hope for from a goth punk romantic song. Goof heft, tremendous charisma. "GOOF???" Sorry. Tpyo.

"Death Comes in March" sounds to be a very personal delivery with the usual "that was my meaningless life laaaalala" delusion that always is the easiest way to suffer along with very mild spiritual efforts needed. The song's anatomy, frighteningly enough - for me myself and I - brings to this mind the character of a U2 song, and U2 always was the stinky gym sock of music in my world, including Bono's terribly undignified singing, rivaled - granted : surpassed - only by the merciless James LaBrie.

"Folie a Delux" is a slow-tempo Epic with a nice instrumental section checking in - for 5 seconds - at the middle, and, though this segment sounds to have a superb Blade Runner vibe to it, the main character of the song leans towards relentless-, and  decently constructed melancholy, my only qualm is the female choir, that gets utilized as a method to offer relevant content, but registers as everyday average streetside attraction at best, and a snob does not even take a peek at a streetside attraction, sorry, Ladies.

"Hail of Bullets" is sweaty as an obese old fart ironbar-bender in a circus, and, though it garners the last remaining drop of cheap intensity from the pond of toy-thrills with a desperate attempt to make itself passable during the chorus, its good galore of unfortunate traits - like a pinball machine soundtrack structure, pop festival synthetisers and your mom in hair rolls - make this song a pretty entertaining bad song. Think of the timeless classic Beat It from Michael Jackson, only without a true idea/plan behind it beyond the intent to reflect on its own nature as a heartwrenchingly blotched attempt to clone itself.

"Love's a Sickness" is another mid-tempo build with - in my opinion - disorganized, scattered segments, made out of straightforward-, risk-free verse structures and shallow instrumental interludes that reek the drunk-ass "gotta score a cougar" mood of a German beer festival where everyone is so fucking drunk than you need to be too to endure at the very least. This song has a respectable intent to save some of the day with interesting groove metal riffing kicking in at the climax, yet Pantera's T-Rex does not care to save too much of THIS day, it takes a piss, yawns and moves its ass to a more interesting place to devastate.

"Raving Hearts" is your favorite Goth boyscout song, that, in character, seeks to show similarities with the strong album opener, yet a row of relevant blemishes - like an incompetent guitar solo - bogs it down steadily. No wonder the "solo" - synonym : guitar strangling - gets interrupted by an out-of-nowhere ambient drone section, and, it is no use that the song seeks to go Silent Hill atmospherics on your hide, the track does not get a stable checkpoint, regardless of an acceptable chorus.

"Oblivion : Vision" is a perplexing, in my opinion, quite enervated slow tempo build with singing that becomes more and more that of a dying pedophile with AIDS and the flu, check the vocal delivery from 5:14, what the fuck!!? This song is somewhat of a mistake, in my opinion, but a big of it at least.

"Someday Somewhere Somehow", fortunately enough, is a decent album wrapper with a tight chorus that brings to mind the stunning peak moment of the opening track of fellow Finnish act Rainroom's latest. This song has a solid set of well balanced behaviors of intensity it chooses to exhibit, and packs particularly nice sonic modulations of great surprise power from time to time. I totally like how it goes for werewolfish psychedelic classic in a blink of an eye, and the whole thing is very sexy, fresh and strong. If this would have been the form brought by this album all the way, then I would give 9.0 or even above without hesitation. Here is one super-consistent record from Finland. But this is not the case, as this To Die For album, in my opinion, is not consistent, and has a fair share of uninspired moments. Still a likable record, but there are a lot of regions on it to not kiss instead.

Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Nightwish - Imaginaerum review

Year : 2011
Genre : Symphonic Abba Metal
Label : Nuclear Blast / Roadrunner Records
Origin : Finland
Rating : 6.0 / 10

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Finland's Nightwish seemingly knows no insipid jokes when it comes to symphonic fairy tale metal. Imaginaerum comes to you with an exigently executed cover art and truly top of the heat production values, and it pains me relevantly enough to inform you that only 5 minutes and 22 seconds of this release is capable to offer something I'm eager to revisit.

Opening track, Taikatalvi is a gently presented musical introduction with Finnish lyrics to it, and this entry, one must assume, serves the attentive function to offer an initial compliment for the ruling atmosphere herein so it could exhibit secretly raging readiness to summon the heft to swarm you proper at any moment near you, with hopefully no less of an agenda than to carry your soul on the oh!, sooo fantastic sonic journey you're here for. Trallala. I got it, I got it. Show me the Animal.


Wish granted. Second track - virtually the first, because the intro is "just" a very nice intro - called Storytime engages Abba Metal Power about 101%, - for 5 minutes and 22 seconds, by the way - and one must imagine that this is the kind of music the so called "diligent metal fan" would be embarrassed to admit she/he totally enjoys, because it sparks, it flows, it carries you indeed, and, regardless of the oh!, so beautifully simplistic structure of verse and chorus, the mutual-, mere melodic tightness of these elements - add the soaring female vocals that hide no Camembert but pack legit power and bite - are more than enough to make GyZ a happy boy so far.

Third track, "Ghost River" has a mixture of seriously wicked masquerade and Rammstein vibe at the start region, in which the LP is quick to address its propensity to go fucking mental if it so pleases, and it is a pretty interesting notion you will be forced to take after its gentler-, but far from slimy direct predecessor. The track shows relative eagerness to go mildly experimental in nature at the mid section, inviting to mind the threshold-zone of the sublime rabidness so inherent to the trade of the avant garde silence massacrists forming the band called Unexpect.

"Slow, Love, Slow" is a slow love song, but, with a sensual menacing vibe to it, presented in a bar atmosphere in which you are not sure what will be the next thing in your mouth : someone's tongue, or a 45 Magnum. This delivery clearly marks an ambition to contribute a truly flamboyant fabric, as brass instruments and a guitar later on join in to deliver standard bluesy vibes. I'm sorry to say that the guitar solo is pretty meh, not much if any musical thought worth sharing behind it, but at least it is short. The song comes to a SUPERB catharsis, courtesy of the female vocalist, but it is SHORT!! Truly, the end section reeks Sam Brown's brilliant declaration Stop, and one has the feeling that the band members got afraid of this instead of embracing it while it is possible.

Next one, "I want my tears back" commits the mistake of nodding on such an exceptionally shitass-sucking track title, but, whatever. This song, unfortunately, shows regions of clueless wandering with Scottish pipes and other hideous things to crave the Michael Flatley. Irish folk song for you. Later on, clapping hands join in in order to exhibit the rhythmic structure for which you will do the Mike Flatley in the next moment if you absolutely are serious about coming across as a person a sober one would not enter into a lift with. This track, in my opinion, sucks ancient mummified mummy balls and I don't like it.

Scaretale tries to scare me with an orchestrated rumble delivered by 1 000 000 stringed instruments, and must say it succeeds. After a short, calmer interlude, an overly-bombastic symphonic build bordering on good old fashioned Bigottry Unlimited invites the rhythm guitars to cover its traces of escape. The singing in the song starts out at 2:55, and it quickly turns out that the name of the game herein is a cute/funny/scary/mehe musical-like piece you could have heard in the Sweeney Todd musical movie. Then you are invited to dismiss this notion, because the build takes a truly terrible turn for a highly idiotic pirate cartoon song, which would be immense dosage of fun in a Secret of the Monkey Island adventure game, but, it sounds like an insult on a professional record when offered as Content and not as a bonus track I get paid for if I'm consent listening to. The track later on returns to a more serious tone that refrains from slapping your face with a dead tuna fish, but, the memory of the horror is too fresh to appreciate any of it.

Arabesque summons the arabesque vibe with very nicely realized, lush orchestra that would flatter a Hollywood blockbuster no problem. Other than that, this indeed sounds more like a thorough-, and splendid demonstration of top level tradecraft skills from the producers - three men have worked on this release as producers - so they could proclaim : "Look! We can produce cinematic music!" Look! They can produce cinematic music!

"Turn Loose the Mermaids" is a gentle-, "emo bard by the bonfire" routine piece with some western overtones I personally got the shivers from in this context. It craves effect sooooooo desperately from me that I, for one, won't give it that courtesy. The song drops the western overtone at the end, and goes Flatley again. Aua.

"Rest Calm" features a man vocalist in a standard power metal stance. While his performance is acceptable, his charm and charisma in my opinion is overshadowed by his female counterparts joining in with a section that sports tad more inventive of a character than the power metalish verse structure. It is not entirely clear at this point what this track wants from me. It sounds like it wants everything, yet wants nothing sufficiently enough so I could give it to it. The piece comes to a bombastic bigottry build via its climax with every instrument in the studio seeking to declare its True Meaning, but the composition simply is not worthy enough to serve this valiant agenda out with me clapping to it.

"The Crow, The Owl and The Dove" is a radio friendly mid-tempo contribution with enough cunning to feature significantly different moods in the chorus and the verse, while a short, efficient interlude builds a safe passage so the band can sell the verse and chorus to you again without you getting caught sleeping. A solid "uhuh" song, but nothing beyond that.

"Last Ride of the Day", thank God & Co., once again goes for the Abba metal vibe which this release looks the best with, in my opinion. The delight is not necessarily unblemished, because the chorus of this entry once again goes for cheapass high fantasy, and, despite the bombastic and relentless repetition of it at the ending portion of the song, I'm not sure if it is as good as the band suggests it to be.

"Song of Myself" is a 13 minutes epic with some pretty superb Abba metal verses at the initial regions, and even more of choirs that go "hah hahh hahh!" relentlessly to interrupt the great lead singer Abba metal chick, who, in my opinion, is much better with her own program than the choir is with their cumbersome-, alibi "hah hahh hahh!", I'm sorry to say. The track comes to a virtual stall without it noticing this about itself, and it basically becomes the context-sensitive background music of any combat section of any fantasy related RPGs. The build escapes this suffocation by seeking out another kind of it, with a row of lengthy, I mean : leeeeeeeenghty narrative performances, and the release gives you the vibe that you are listening to a self help tape. Nothing wrong with that, but where is my direct entertainment you promised!

As for the last track, the titular Imaginaerum : the central theme is a solid, thoughtful melody that could be the invention of John Williams, and, once you are served with it a couple of times, powerful-, yet at heart formless cinematic music is applied, so you would be delighted when you get the then-familiar central melody back. Beware : there are Scottish pipes on your way, and Michael Flatley knows you are near, too. Once again, this is a cinematic soundtrack for a Hollywood blockbuster, and it does nothing less or else than you would anticipate if to expect that from it.

This release has a very limited ability to deliver its stunning top form it gives you via its second track, which, not too surprisingly, was released as an introductory single for a much more tepid full length you have just been reading about. I got super-enthusiastic with this release upon hearing that second track, "Storytime", and with massive disappointment I conclude that I could not find anything else on it to remain in that mood for.

Rating : 6.0 / 10

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Insomnium - One for Sorrow review

Year : 2011
Genre : Melodic Death Metal
Label : Century Media
Origin : Finland
Rating : 8.8 / 10

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With its freshest full length to date, Finland's Insomnium rains down not hellfire but a squad of Nordic avalanches on you, doing it with tremendous charm and ruthless efficiency. This record has an icy, positive, dignified "storyteller" attitude, and the whole thing reeks - in a similarly positive way - the Burzum black metal vibe, now though blown out to occupy top level aural real estate capacity. The tracks on this spin are abundant and playful musical constructs, and it is safe to say that less efficient declarations are not part of this fine inner sightseeing.

The primordial-, "Burzum-like" vibe of the release is your totally appropriate modal fix to get ripped to shreds by a pack of rabid wolves on the thin ice to entertain the withered moonlight, yet, Insomnium's One for Sorrow is clearly a record that commands you to feel reasonably good about being ripped to shreds. The LP introduces and tastefully maintains a sense of frosty, sorrowfully and frighteningly sexy fantasy narrative, - not buttbuddy nor acquaintance of cheesefestation fantasy power metal - and makes it work superbly by pulling out melodic hooks from behind every single mammoth tree you come across in this intriguing sonic forest. Guys, let's talk about the music.


One for Sorrow's most fine attribute to notice and be delighted about, is its capacity to be flamboyant and focused with heft, grit and tenderness, all at the same time. The LP has a whole lot going on along its perfect length of 53 minutes. While the general flow of things revolves around the timeless fun of well varied sonic rumbling, the complementary ingredient is a propensity to throw a cleverly placed wink to Nordic folk vibes, and let me tell you that these viking folk vibes are looking truly great when their qualities are addressed by frozen lich king guitars plugged into monolith-amplifiers.

Insomnium's latest is a highly likable piece of silence massacre, and you can't miss out and be serious about it on the dozens of fine little subtleties the tracks are packed fully with. FULLY, indeed. Most of the time, there are 3 or 4 aural layers present ONLY in the mid-range register, so you will have ample occasions to cultivate attention to the high frequency details the mere fabric of the record graces you as.

Sober accessibility coming in with tremendous heft and through myriad forms, is key factor of this release. The choruses are elegant, the death metal growling sucks your soul out through your eyes and spits it back through your ass, and the whole album has super-tight focus-, relevant melodic inventions and sober balance written all over it. All in all, Insomnium's One for Sorrow is a record with full blown potential to turn its listener to a werewolf with an agenda, and hell, what is more manly than that!?

Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Rainroom - And the Other, that was a Machine review

Year : 2011
Genre : Death / Doom hybrid
Label : Relapse
Origin : Finland
Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Finnish death / doom hybrid Rainroom represents a musical consortium in which both its key participants - death and doom - are having exquisite fun with each other. Alas, it also is an unbalanced record, as 12+ of its 43 minutes are likely to give you sequences by which you can quite safely and peacefully give the green light on saliva pouring from your corner of your mouth to the pillow. This record is "death" only in the sense that it features totally full blown, integrally presented death metal vocals : growls, hauls, guttural, you know the death deal. But, here is the catch, and the dramatic turn of events! Instead of backing the death metal vocals up with traditional death having a rampant run in the background, Rainroom hits you with the kind of doom metal that - thank God and Co.! - still did not give up the will to exist. In other words : and yet it moves, and yet it lives.

The first track of this LP, called "...yeah, many machines", is a profound and efficient example of what the plan is. These growling/hauling death metal vocals are arranged over lively doom metal music which is in its autonomous and epically gloomy hurry to reach its favorite place to suffer on, - on this track, that is - and the ensuing aural experience will likely have a truly significant, lifting and positive effect on you. Or not. It does exhibit this effect on me every time I hear it. It is just hilarious and so logical, the relentless misery of death metal anger being supported by doom metal that seems to despise this level of misery-extroversion, and now it still is ready to hear it out, like a psychoanalyst female giving a session for the rampant reaper while it has one of its favorite nervous breakdowns. Read on to find out how the session went.



Rainroom's And the Other, that was a Machine, has a tamely, but elegantly presented steampunk theme to it, and you only have two choices regarding steampunk : you have to love it, or you have to love it in a manic fashion. Which, granted, may be self-explanatory.

Truth is, that the first track of the LP sounds to be more ripe of a creation than its follow-up, called Abort Engine, which is a much more undisciplined build initially, and it is having this fixated pastime of smashing your awareness against any single wall it comes across. The effective riffing, the structure of things to be found herein though, are not strong enough to claim validation of the act of smashing you around for this long. Probably the least successful track on the LP, and its more peaceful demeanor in the climax does not sound to do all that much noticeable justice to it, either. The tender part sounds more like an alibi, a cover story, and not content you can wholeheartedly regard as relevant, not when measured to the ripeness and the integrity of the stupendous first track "...yeah, many machines".

The similar initial percepts arise with the third track, called Loew Machine, and these impressions decide to stick around for no less than five minutes. What threatens to be another mid-tempo convolution, gets assuaged by legit instrumental saving graces found to be embedded in the track's midsection to its end. That body though is about three times as big as it would still look acceptably hot with/in. Track number four, called Steam Conjecture once again draws a clear and truly vibrant picture : following a flamboyant intro section that also incorporates the goal of preparing you for the Thing that Comes, super-heavyweight doom metal indeed relentlessly arises and demands a stop from time, then addresses its supreme misery of gargantuan proportions with top notch death metal singing to flatter it. And, following a short and elegant interlude to draw your attention away, the exact focal theme comes back to claim your soul with brisker, but still heavy as the tenderness of two bisexual gorillas-type mid-tempo rhythmization. This is a clearly sorrowful song at heart, and the magic arises as result that now there are monster-instruments that unconditionally submit to the charm of the beautiful/sorrowful harmonic pattern, which reigns as the core meaning of the track. This one is the same caliber as the opening contribution, and it is just a pity that two wasteland-fillers are separating them.

Rainroom is a band you want to keep an eye on, (just make sure you have something to wipe the slime off with) and this debut shows sufficient amount of brilliance to regard the relative tedium it spends in the dark via its midsection clearly redeemable.

Rating : 7.5 / 10

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