Category: Music

{mosimage}Formed in 2007 and alter the success of their first single Pretty White Dress, it is about time to see the results of their work together with their first full length!

Although being the debut album for Marenne, their musicians are far from being just beginners. Zachary Hietala and Janne Tolsa come from legendary band Tarot, while Jukka Jylli is also an experienced musician who belonged previously to bands like Mannerheim.

Added to all this talent together, the cherry on top of t he cake is the marvelous voice of the female singer, Marenne. It is not easy to play epic metal with a female singer and not falling into comparisons with Nightwish, but certainly Marenne, although of course is close to the style of the previously mentioned, are able also to create their own atmosphere with riffs that drink from the British rock of the 70s.

The album sounds great, squared, measured and beautiful. Maybe nothing extraordinarily provoking or innovative, but very composed and balanced. Every track is a delight for the fans of melodic metal, and if I have to put a “but”, I would say that it is a pity that the record has only 10 tracks (but this seems to be the trend nowadays).

All in all, a very favorable first impression and a promising future for this new super talented band!

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}Finnish record company Spinefarm seems to be determined to provide us with a bunch of great records every month. Here comes the debut full-length for these 3 Finnish souls. 

The Souls are Jani Orpana in the guitar and vocals, Antti Takalo in the bass and Toni Orpana in the drums. The trio from Kymenlaakso is stepping firmly into the Finnish music scene with a notable debut work. Spinefarm records shows once more that is able to handle excellent bands that not only play metal. With their garage rock, The Souls are a nice surprise. Their start can remind you a bit to the Swedes The Hives in Wounded Soul and certainly you can notice some influence from the actual Swedish rock, but also a bigger scope that directs to the rock of the 70s. The album becomes more introspective and slower with the pass of tracks like in the relaxing Goodbye and has a sweet reminiscence to the sound of Hendrix in songs like Motherland. The next one Harder When I come Around has nothing to envy to their Finnish colleagues Flaming Sideburns. 

The Souls are a technically skilful band and all in all, a colourful album where every song adds something to the final result. Pretty recommendable! 

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}Also from Turku comes Masa Laine, aka Marty the Random Guy, featuring his new splendid debut album.

I have a special weakness for independent musicians who self-produce their debut albums. I have also struggled hard in life to do what I wanted, and I appreciate the effort of taking risks and releasing a record without the backing up of a big company. And if the record happens to be as good as this Hooks, then the effort is double worthy! Hooks offer a good collection of songs that wisely mix blues, folk and rock in a way that can remind you, overall in the introductory track also called Hooks, to Led Zepellin. But the album is not a hard rock album.

The rhythms remind you more a kind of garage-blues, dirty vocals, a man and a guitar weeping like in the touchy where the story ends, and resuming, a work that sounds fresh and spontaneous, simple but classy.

We know that Marty is nowadays looking for more venues to play all over Finland, so we wish him good luck and advise the promoters to give a chance to this talented artist. Audience won´t get disappointed!

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}The band from Turku release their second full-length full of good metal…and death.

Founded in 2003, this relatively unknown Finnish metal band should have a better destiny from now on with their newest release. Honestly, I have not listened to their debut album, so I cannot compare, so the analysis will be centered in this present Saturday Night Evil.

The album, being fair, is all but original. The style will remind you from the first guitar riff to bands like Nightwish or Evanescence. But technically, it is almost flawless. The sound is compact and the vocal skills of Ms Maya are delicious to hear. The tone of the lyrics is a bit darker than in the previously mentioned bands, with the topic of death always present in the album. Honestly, I do not think that it was needed to give such a big “dark” touch to the band, because the rhythms suit better with more epic and historical lyrics, but the result in any case is acceptable, and as a nice special surprise, they delight us with a cool version of the classic from Mike Oldfield Moonlight Shadow. Otherwise, pay attention to tracks like And you Cry or the bleeding guitar riffs of Dagon, and you will not get disappointed.

Deathlike Silence shows once more that Finland seems to be a never ending cradle for amazing metal bands. And hopefully the trend will go on for many more years!

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}The alternative project from Josh Homme, vocalist of Queens of the Stone Age is back, featuring a third rude album of good rock & roll.

With Homme sitting on the drums and the collaboration of his pal Jesse Hughes, Eagles of Death Metal are back with new doses of humor and good rock & roll. You can notice that there is no pressure here to sell millions of albums around the world, and the relaxation of the project maybe is their best weapon to turn it into one of the most exciting ones of the actual rock scene. The sleazy lyrics and titles just speak by themselves: Wannabe in L.A., Now I´m a Fool or I´m Your Torpedo gives you an idea that these guys are not really talking about philosophy or politics here, going just straighter to the essence of rock.

Heart on is just resuming a tasty freaky delicatessen that exudes great rock and mornings of tough hangovers.

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}After having sold 8 million copies of their previous albums, it is about time to see if the Canadians can keep up with the expectations.

For the sixth studio album of one of the most successful rock bands of the last decade, nothing better than investing on a sure value like producer Mutt Lange, who has worked among others with a “little” band called ACDC, to achieve a clean and quality sound.

What you have here is pretty simple: if you are a follower of Nickelback, you still will love this. If you hate them, this album is not going to change your mind. But certainly there are differences between Dark Horse and its predecessors.

The band has adopted a tougher and more “sleazy tone”, with lyrics more focused on one night stands and sex, like in the introductory Something in Your Mouth or in (the title says everything) S.E.X. There are still pretty nice mid-tempo ballads like the excellent Gotta Be Somebody or I´d Come For You, so the female audience can still count with Nickelback as one of their favorite ones, but certainly the band can find new followers among fans of bands like Deff Leppard, Mötley Crue or Aerosmith with the more mischievous tone of the new album.

I like this taste from the 80s that the album exhales, although the lyrics composition has decreased in quality from their previous work All The Right Reasons and sometimes they are plainly too simple, like aimed at 15 years old kids. But still, the album is catchy and Chad Kroeger is brilliant in the vocals, so I must not less than giving them a good rate.

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}The follow up album to Wow, what was that, baby? just hit the streets the 21st of January

The followers of these young four energetic girls have not had to wait for long, after their debut work in 2007, for the release of the second studio album. The girls from Helsinki offer a collection of 11 tracks full of mischief, light lyrics, fun and garage rock riffs. The beginning of the album caught me a bit cold, but soon the music warmed me up with the second splendid Beef Rice or the enjoyable Angus.

Pintandwefall brings you all what you can expect from a young band, some fun and tracks that can be easily listened at whatever party with your friends. For those who are expecting a deeper and more philosophical work here, this is probably not your album.

Not a bad effort, but I would like to see how their style develops in a few years when the label of “young promising female rock band” does not work the same to attract listeners.

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}If there is a band that definitely defines the trendy “Fullsteam” Finnish sound, that is Damn Seagulls. They come big and strong as the bears in the album cover.

I must confess that I never felt the urge to check on the sound of Damn Seagulls…until now. I thought that all the heat around them was a bit out of proportion, more like a well orchestrated marketing campaign. But I was wrong and this Hunting Season is a good proof of it. Since the first second I started to listen to it, I realized this guys really rock, (and my opinion was promptly backed up by my girlfriend who asserted from the other room that she liked that band I was listening…who am I to contradict her?)

Sarcasm out, the point is that the band sounds good, compact and with ideas. Maybe they do not count with the best singer in Finland, maybe the artwork of the CD is not the best you can watch at during the last months, but there is some kind of special magic in their compositions that get you hooked. Great lyrics like in Novus Ordo Mundi, Dead Pigeons  or Gone by the Dawn (my favorite one), for putting a few examples, will make you play the CD once and again.

Damn Seagulls have one more follower from now on. Pretty recommendable and enjoyable album!

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}It is already 10 years since the first album release by the Finnish band, and they come back stronger than ever with their sixth studio album!

Painstained is probably the best Finnish rock-metal album that I have listened to in the last month. You can really notice there the hand of “magician” producer Hiili Hiilesmaa, the man behind the sound in albums of huge bands like Sentenced, Apocalyptica, HIM or the Portuguese Moonspell.

Hiilesmaa have made possible that Entwine runs away from the more classic brutal sound that usually Spinefarm´s bands have, achieving a very well balanced and squared album that can really hit the mainstream audience. Mika Tauriainen´s vocal skills are superb and songs like Soul Sacrifice, Strife, Lost in My Denial or Greed of Mankind are instant classics.

Let’s see how 2009 goes for the Finnish metatheads, because they certainly deserve bigger international attention. For the moment, you have the chance to check them out live very soon in the Spinefeast 2009 that will take place 29th-30th of January.

Rating 4/5

Related articles:

Interview with Mika Tauriainen:

http://www.freemagazine.fi/content/view/899/152/

{mosimage}The Finnish singer, who became very famous in her native country after representing it in the Eurovision song contest in Helsinki a few years ago, release her fourth studio album.

I think that Hanna was unfairly voted in the Eurovision song contest. Maybe she did not perform an amazing act to win, but she is still a singer with excellent vocal skills, like she shows once more in this new record filled with pop and soft rock and the unavoidable ballads.

With a sound that drinks from the 80s, Hanna offers a collection (not a big collection though, only 9 tracks) of easy-listening songs, where we could highlight the introductory Almost Real or the more rocking single Shout it Loud.

I still believe that the weak point is that the album is aimed mainly at a young female audience. Most of male listeners will find it too “soft” for rock and too cheesy for pop, although you can always use it to create a romantic atmosphere with candles and wine in a snowy winter night with some special company close to you.

The album is basically offering what you expect, no more no less, but it would be nice to see Hanna in the future rocking a bit wilder.

Rating 3/5

{mosimage}One of the strongest debut releases in American metal scene, a band that sounds great in studio and are not afraid to backing it up on Tour.

Hungarian Zoltan Bathory (ex member of U.P.O.) formed 5FDP in 2005. The musicians are young but not inexperienced, since they have a strong background, having played with bands such as W.A.S.P., Motograter or Anubis Rising.

What you have here is 12 tracks of metal “on your face”. Music is direct and a bit raw (same than the excellent artwork of the album), but also compact and with good melody. You get a good impression from the beginning from this fans of Kill Bill (the name of the band is extracted from the blow that Uma Thurman gives to David Carradine at the end of the second part of the Tarantino´s saga), with the outstanding track Ashes and the album continue evolving you, special mention for the good skills of the vocalist Ivan “Ghost” Moody, who knows when to scream and when to soften the tone (if not take a glimpse at his excellent work in the 4th track The Bleeding), mastering the tempo of the songs and receiving a great help from the rest of the band with the back-up vocals. Guitar riffs are sharp like a knife, but overall is the brutal drums of Jeremy Spencer what keeps pushing and pushing the album all the way until the end.

Although maybe does not sound so classy metal, the quality of the record stands itself to gain fast a good legion of fans, no wonder that sold 300.000 copies while the band introduced it touring extensively in North America; it is certainly a superb first effort and specially if you like bands like Korn, you will adopt them into your CD collection in no time.

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}One of the most veteran Spanish rock bands is back on the road after a few years of silence with a new and deliciously incorrect album.

After having signed with Roadrunner, the Basque band from Vitoria is back again with this Mala Sangre (“Bad Blood”). SA was in the middle of a big polemic a few years ago, when their lyrics were targeted by some sectors of the Spanish society as being praising the terrorism. Finally, the band was absolved in court of any responsibility, and here they are again with the songs and far from other turbulent business out of their music.

What you have here is an album that sounds rounded, well measured, powerful, “thrashy” but also with some touches of punk and classic rock, and with Juan, the lead singer, shouting again acid lyrics that complain about the Government and the established forces of power in the society.

If you do not understand Spanish, this is obviously going to undermine your perception of SA, because the lyrics have really a strong political content and a lot of slang. Maybe is not the best rock band in Spain from a technical point of view, neither have the best vocalist, but their charisma on and off stage is still ranking very high. If you enjoy discovering rock bands that do not only sing in English, and listening to lyrics loaded with rage and messages, SA is for you.

Rating 3/5