The artwork of this album is very colourful and suggestive. Pictures of medieval warriors, lake landscapes and woodlands suggest something from Finland, as indeed does the album title, which in Finnish means “Return”. The artist behind this is in fact from around Yaroslavl Oblast in northern Russia, an area of water and forests but with song titles and lyrics in Finnish, it was apparent that Russia’s neighbours have an influential part to play.
It was a surprise then that this album started off with an Eastern mantra. To the mellow tune brought about by an acoustic guitar and the sound of a jaw harp, a calming female voice sings a hypnotic folk song. The calm is broken as “Om Asato Ma Sat Gamaya” breaks explosively into death metal and growls. It is imposing. The ambient calm is briefly restored, before the forceful melodic and drum-heavy strains of “Tie Karjalaisten Maalla” (Finnish for “Road on the Land of Karelians”) hit us. In spite of tinkling keyboard work, this conventionally structured song is dark and weighty, aided by the growls of the artist Mr Bredis. There’s an air of defiance and battle metal about this melodic metal. A windswept sample precedes a battle cry to begin “Vottovaara”, before a song which recalls Finnish melo-thrash bands such as Mors Principium Est. Oi-oi-oi-oi we hear as we move to battle mode, and presumably the crowd join in, as Mr Bredis leads the charge energetically. The title song then starts with more melo-thrash, slowing down and developing into an accomplished classic and flamboyant instrumental metal melody with hints of djent behind it. “Kilitollisuuden Kalma-Vaaran” reverts to the jaw harp and ambient folk strains, supported by a driving beat and acoustic tune to go with the vocal delivery. As “Om Asato Ma Sat Gamaya”, the song bursts into a fog of death metal and technical solo guitar work. It ends suddenly without rhyme or reason.
That isn’t it because the album contains two bonus tracks comprising two songs from Vottovaara’s 2017 demo. Grainer in sound, the same melodic death style and battle strains are there which I recognised from the previous songs, but this is hardly surprising as they are two of the previous songs.
For me, “Paluu” was interesting but stood in no man’s land musically. I liked parts of it and sensed I was in a forest fighting battles or reflecting on them but, although I’m sure this wasn’t the intention, it seemed to come together randomly. It doesn’t help that I don’t understand the lyrics but that wasn’t it. Musically it is diverse and if there’s a message in it then it needs a thread and I couldn’t detect that through the musical styles.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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