Author: Klaus Van Persie

{mosimage}The Wombats do not come from Australia but from Liverpool and are ready to make you move your body in the dance floor.

The Wombats were born in 2003 in Liverpool, being the band composed by “Murph” Murphy (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Dan Haggis (drums, vocals) and Norwegian Tord Overland Knudsen (bass, vocals). They introduce us their debut album: A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation, that surely will not make you feel indifferent.

A lot of humour starting from the songs titles, in tracks like Kill the Director or in the off-kilter waltz Party in The Forest (Where is Laura?), but also with a certain touch of sadness and not taking themselves too seriously, like the singer Murph himself recognises: “It is fun, but with dark undertones thrown in there. There’s a fair bit of self-deprecation going on”. And certainly there must be a mix of both for mixing successfully concepts like dancing in a discotheque and the melancholy of Joy Division in a song like Let’s dance to Joy Division.

No band had had the balls to join such concepts before!  In a way, it is the same old story written with a softer and not so serious touch, the life of some young guys full of lost love, parties and some small mischief. Nothing better to resume the philosophy of the band that the first track’s title: Tales of Girls, Boys & Marsupials. At some point their rhythms can remind you of the Swedes The Hives, adding the perfect doses of nostalgia to be very well received by the Finnish audience. Definitely one of the best and freshest debut albums of the last months.

Rating 4/5

{mosimage}Widescreen Mode has become one of the newest and hottest hard rock bands in Finland, with the release of their debut album: Until the End.

The debut album of the Finnish metal band Widescreen Mode, Until the End, has raised like a rocket into the Finnish music charts, directly to the peak, and this is greatly due to the good promotion campaign in Internet, MySpace and Itunes with their first single Everlasting Bomb (lyrics inspired by the film The Planet of the Apes), a success that has been followed and even increased with the second single of the album: Dead Inside, an excellent choice since it is undoubtedly one of the best tunes of the whole record.

The band from Riihimaki is composed by Samu Brusila on the vocals, Janne Lahtinen as guitarist, Janne Stenroos on the bass and Janne Aaltonen on the drums (it could have perfectly been renamed as "the Jannes").

Widescreen Mode makes a perfect example on how the promotion in alternative channels like Internet can bring excellent results. They were finalist in the MTV’s unsigned competition and have gathered more than 65.000 fans in MySpace. But when I listen to them, I cannot see the special magic needed to push the songs to the number 1 of the charts. The melodies are correct and technically, they sound compact; the vocals skills of Samu work fine, the CD visual design is cool, but the sound, that explores more the softer than the rougher side of the metal, although the brutal beginning of the album in Without Me could mislead you, is typical and unsurprising; nothing that you could not hear from dozens of other Finnish bands trying to make their way in the difficult world of music business. In any case, for being a debut album, it gives a very praising result, and hopefully with more maturity and new works Widescreen Mode could reach the status of new Finnish super metal band. But there is still a long way to go…

Rating 3/5

{mosimage}Singer Serj Tankian launches his solo debut album, free of System of a Down's guitarist's Daron Malakian's influences. He is also touring and promoting the album with a new backing band that he calls the FCC: Flying Cunt of Chaos.

Many fans of System of a Down were not much happy with Malakian´s late attitude of taking a bigger role in the vocals parts of System of a Down. Now they can feel happy with Tankian's first solo album, introducing again in plenitude the unique Serj's vocal talents. Do not expect in any case bigger changes from SOAD´s style. The album is similar in many aspects to works like Mesmerize, but obviously with a more personal touch by Tankian. Furious, politically involved and combative and with Tankian´s elastic and expressive vocals flooding the album in every song.

The album enjoys some glorious moments like in Saving us or the final track Elect the Dead, but part of the magic that you could find in SOAD is lost here. It seems that Tankian wanted to satisfy the old fans while trying to create something a bit different, but at the end got disoriented in the middle of the crossroad and the result gets overcooked; his shouts can turn from dynamic into annoying. Not a bad effort though, since the songwriting is brilliant and the rebellious attitude continues at its top.

Tankian shows why he has more balls than most of the people in the American  musical industry, with a praising  balance of quality and dignity. While SOAD takes a break, Elect the Dead is a good choice to await until Malakian and Tankian will rejoin forces.

Rating 3/5

{mosimage}Sunrise Avenue
is one of the new Finnish bands that got quite a big international
success, especially in Germany. They present their new DVD: Live in Wonderland.

The band appeared
recently also in the news for not such a happy reason: their guitar
player and founder member Janne Kärkkäinen was fired
due to differences with the rest of the musicians, and replaced by a
new guitarist, Riku, that made possible to save the present European
tour where the band is involved.

What we have here is
the new DVD recorded on March 25th at E-Werk, Cologne. Sunrise Avenue
is a big success in Germany, so it was an excellent chance to
transmit that devotion of the German public (many female teenagers in
the first rows of the show) towards Samu Haber, the singer and
composer, and his fellows. The live DVD comes after the release of
the first album of the band: One way to Wonderland, and I must
admit that I am not very kind of bands releasing live material at
such an early stage of their careers. Even the musicians themselves
admit that they lack a larger repertoire when facing the encore. All
along the 15 tracks (plus the bonus track Diamonds) you can
see a young band that transmits a happy spirit and sunshine in the
melodies. Samu connects pretty well with the audience testing his
German language skills, but I don’t consider his vocal skills any
special. My impression towards Sunrise Avenue is that they are not so
different from many other pop-rock bands that appeared recently in
the Finnish scene (for example, labels like Fullsteam have
literally flooded the market with bands with similar style). Easy
pop-rock that can be easily swallowed by a broad teenage audience;
Same old formula. The band shows its best when they try harder riffs
and they really rock in some songs like in the introductory Choose
to be me or the final one Nasty, but the public clearly
appreciates more softer tunes like Into the Blue or Fairytale
Gone Bad.

About the technical
features, the design of the DVD main menu is quite cool, and you can
also have access to some interesting extras like images taken on the
road during the tour. Pay attention to some funny comments like when
Samu affirms that “this is a non-alcoholic tour, as usual” but
some minutes later you can see some members of the band holding
bottles of beers in their hands… Well, otherwise that would not be
a Finnish band on tour!

In any case, my
perception is that this DVD on live comes too much earlier for a band
with hardly just one studio album released. It smells too much like a
product thought by the brains in the record label to take advantage
of the present success, but they should have waited a bit more to let
the guys mature and show more experience on stage. If you are not a
fan of the band, do not waste your money on it.

Rating: 2/5

{mosimage}Do you remember the eighties? And how the glam scene was dominating the
charts?

American bands coming mostly from the sleazy Los Angeles scene like Dokken,
Poison, Mötley Crüe, or Faster Pussycat,
with tons of make-up, an androgynous image and a lot ease on stage that was
able to turn male and female audiences crazy. And RATT was one of the
sexiest bands of that era; straight guitar riffs from the excellent Warren
DeMartini mixed with excellent lyrics that made them have a place in the
heart of millions of listeners.

For those of you who were too young to enjoy the “glammy” movement, now
you have the chance to rediscover the band, or just to jump a couple of decades
back in time with this greatest hits edited by Atlantic. 20 featured
tracks, material gathered mostly from their first and most successful four
albums although you can find also a couple of songs at the end from the latest
90s: Steel
River and Way Cool
Jr. from their MTV Unplugged).

Listen again to the catchy chorus
of Round and Round, the powerful lyrics in I want a Woman, the
killer opening riff in You are in Love or the sultry Nobody rides for
Free.  RATT continues alive nowadays
in 2007, but only two original members are left after continuous formation
changes over the last years and the death of the guitarist Robin Crosby
in 2002.

If you already had the 91 RATT´s compilation called Ratt ´n Roll 8191,
probably this album is not going to add much to your collection, since the
material is quite similar, but for fans and new incomers, this is an excellent
chance to get some taste from the fabulous eighties.

Rating 4/5

{mosimage}Re-release
in DVD in Finland of the classic show offered by Yes in Amsterdam during
their tour in 2001, when they fulfilled their dream of playing together with an
orchestra.

It seems
that symphonic rock is living a new golden era with new generations and old
fans rediscovering the mega bands that reached fame at the end of the 70s and
beginnings of the 80s. Recently we saw the appearance of a new DVD of Asia
featuring his old masterful guitarist Steve Howe, who stars again in
this re-release of the concert offered by Yes in Amsterdam during the 2001 tour: Yes
Symphonic Live.

This time
they enjoy the company on stage of the European Festival Orchestra, directed by
Wilhelm Keitel. Young and talented musicians who give a fresh note
backing the old monsters of rock. They provide dynamic introductions for the
songs, a lot of smiles and a good spirit that creates an excellent feeling on
stage and with the audience.

I must admit
that I have never been a fan of rock concerts where you have to seat in front
of the stage. For me rock is often associated with sweating, standing, clapping
hands, jumping and forgetting yourself for a couple of hours, but nevertheless
here you can really see the audience, composed by old and young people quite
equally, quite excited standing continuously and cheering up the band. The
vocalist Jon Anderson looks a bit forced in his speeches to the public
(sometimes he is funny, sometimes he pretends to be) but the quality of his
voice is undeniable. My favourite parts of the show are at the beginning with Close
to the Edge, and later with the classics Gates of Delirium and Starship
Trooper. The new song Don´t go from Magnification album
released that same year also sounds excellent and harmonious with the
older hits. Roundabout puts the big end to the show with the orchestra
standing by the band, and although it was never one of my favourites, it is
still highly appreciated by the fans.

All in all,
what can you expect of a symphonic rock band accompanied by a symphonic
orchestra? Well, an overdose of symphonic music. The show sometimes feels
excessive, and although I am sure that many Yes fans will enjoy every
minute of it, I found myself a bit bored during some instrumental parts. Maybe
157 minutes of symphonic rock can turn to be too much if you don’t make pauses
or have a couple of bottles of wine while watching the show. The sound quality
is nevertheless excellent and the replacement keyboard player, the young Tom
Brislin connects perfectly with the rest of the band.

For many old
fans and unconditional followers of Yes, this could be probably the definite
DVD to be purchased. In my opinion, although with some brilliant parts, it
turns to be a bit too much excessive.

Rating 3/5

{mosimage}Asia, the progressive rock super band from
the eighties is back with its four original members in a DVD that celebrates
the 25th anniversary of the release of their first and acclaimed
album Asia.

The release
of the album Asia provoked a lot
of controversy among the followers of progressive rock. For many, it was
welcomed as one of the best albums of the decade. For others, it was a betrayal
to the style due to the excessive commercial touch of the lyrics. In any case,
and after several years when Asia did not enjoy much success, time has passed
by and history makes justice with this DVD filmed in Tokyo in March 2007 that
commemorates the 25h anniversary of the release of their first album, with the
4 original members: Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton reunited in a
tour that made dreams come true for many old fans.

Although
obviously the band does not sound as compact as it could be after so many years
of separation, the skilled musicians are able to display an entertaining and
plain show. 2 hours of music where Asia play
old classics that have turned into real history of rock as Sole Survivor
or Heat of the Moment (too much extended version for my taste) and also
every member of the band add 1 song brought from their other projects. One
Step Closer sounds emotive while Video Killed the Radio Star sounds
funny. Later on Steve Howe wins the audience over with their solos playing the
mandolin and the Spanish guitar, although across some moments in the concert he
seems to be lost and not totally comfortable on stage. John Wetton´s vocal
skills sound superb, Carl Palmer shows once more how amazingly good he is
behind the drums, but somebody should advise Geoff Downes about his dressing
style; the man would have been perfectly taken from “Spinal Tap 2.0 progressive
rock version”… The sound of the show is clean and with excellent quality but we
miss a bit more of interaction of the public all along the DVD (maybe this can
be due to the post-production more than to the coldness of Japanese fans).

To sum up,
this is a product that probably won’t make feel especially excited to metal
headers and fans of Lordi, but that surely will delight all those lovers
of progressive rock and old Asia fans.

Rating 4/5 

{mosimage}Uniklubi, the young band from Tampere, releases their
third studio album, Luotisade,  after having becoming the favourite of many
teenagers in Finland due in great part to their previous hit included in their
first album (and named after that song): Rakkautta ja Piikkilankaa.

Being quite an unusual feature, in Uniklubi  the bass player, Teemu Rajämaki, is the
one who composes most of the lyrics. About the new work, just after a curious
short intro where you can listen to the voice of a child in a lullaby that
could perfectly be extracted from a Tubular Bells album, in Luotisade
you can find good and catchy melodic rock in tunes like Vnus or the more romantic one Luotisade
that gives name to the album.

There is also space for heavier sound as you can
find in the seventh track Varjoon Juuttunut. Singing all the songs in
Finnish language, the bands market gets reduced basically in a great extent to their
native Finland.
Uniklubi faces quite a tough competence in this national market against other bands
with similar style and more experienced as Apulanta (many guitar riffs
sound exactly the same), Technicolour or Negative but album after
album the “Tamperelaiset” boys achieve quite a personal sound and own style
that undoubtedly will make them gain positions in the band list of future
summer festivals.