Category: Albums

{mosimage}Another young hard rock band coming from the United Kingdom is knocking at your door! 

When you take a look at the cover of this debut album by the English guys, 2 ideas come immediately to your mind: this is a rock band with a female singer, or this is a rock band with dirty sounds in the best Motley Crue ´s tradition. The second affirmation is totally true when talking about Dear Superstar. What they offer here is a good collection of songs with a sound “made in Hollywood” that could have been perfectly signed by the cousins of Motley Crue. If you like this “dirty” rock from the 80s, with topics about alcohol, retaliation, rock and of course sex (one track is just titled Hollywood Whore), this is for you.  

The guitar riffs are actually pretty sharp and compose some of the best moments in the album. So basically this Heartless counts with the best and the worst of the American hard rock tradition (although the band is English); if you like the style, you will be glad to discover this, but if you prefer other newer experienced or just remain with the classics of the genre, this will add basically nothing much to your CD collection. Up to you if you want to give them a try! 

Rating 3/5. 

{mosimage}The Sound Ex is a new and very interesting band hailing from Newcastle in U.K. 

If you like classic rock in the best English tradition, you are probably going to love The sound Ex. Good hard rock and excellent work with the instruments for a band that can remind you at some point Thin Lizzy or even Manic Street Preachers, powerful but measured. 

Breathtaking intros like in the third track Loss or in the introductory Enchantment, and great vocal skills make this album a pretty nice surprise. Palomino is an accessible album that can be certainly well received by a wider audience, but at the same time it shows rock with guts and attitude. All in all, a nice exciting work to follow closely the next steps by the English guys. 

Rating 4/5  

{mosimage}This young Finnish band formed during this year release their first album trying to find their way into the populated Finnish rock scene. 

Underground Attack is an indie rock band from the capital area of Finland that loves good classic guitar riffs in the best American sleazy tradition. Juhis, Piiska, Sasu and Arska are not afraid of crossing the Finnish boundaries, having gained experience playing in countries like Germany or Russia. What you have here is 12 tracks that compose their first album, and the result is… maybe too amateurish. 

The quality of the sound in the CD could be better, and the artwork of the CD exhales the flavor of an amateur work too (although I must confess I have nothing against the pretty lady naked in the back cover). There are some hints of good quality like in the 5th track Broken Dreams and the guitars sound solid all over the album, but the vocal skills are not the best ones you can listen to lately, and some lyrics could be improved, like for example in the boring and predictable Alienation. 

We are always glad to see new young bands trying to progress in the difficult rock business, but although Underground Attacks shows good manners, they still have a long way to improve in the future. 

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}Daikini, aka Lauri Kemppainen and his band offers an original mix of rap and metal in this album. 

I am not specially very fond of rap-metal albums, and before listening to this Salaisuus, I must admit I did not have much expectations. But certainly Daikini has achieved quite a fresh and original sound in a style not so much exploded in Finland. The instruments sound clear and powerful and Lauri´s voice is direct like a good punch to the liver, but not without some charm (it helps if you can understand Finnish language). The combination works pretty well and the 10 tracks turn to be pretty listenable, with some very good tracks like Salaisuus, Tyttö Sinä Tapat Minun Luovuuden or Kaupallinen Itsemurha. 

If you are an old-school metal fan, probably you do even want to take the effort to listen to this one, but if you are the open-minded kind of person who is always hungry to discover new musical experiences, plus you enjoy listening to acid lyrics in Finnish, this album could gladly surprise you. Not a bad effort. 

Rating 3/5

{mosimage}This duel turns into a duet with the collaboration of these 2 musicians in this new extravaganza for your ears. 

The notes of an organ that resembles those old Casio ones we used when were children fluidly fly away from the CD reproducer, introducing the new album of Anssi 8000 in collaboration with Maria Stereo. The guy native from a small village in Finland called Sahalahti can be catalogued of anything but mainstream. He takes care of vocals, guitar, bass and drums while Maria complements with backing vocals organ or playing cymbals.

Duel is a collection of 12 tracks with good doses of humor and irony in the lyrics, but certainly not aimed at all the publics. If you like experimental pop sounds with a twist, you will love this one, but if you are used to some more kind of mainstream pop-rock, this album will certainly sound weird. A record to be tasted slowly and carefully; probably you will need to listen to it several times to appreciate the good details here and there, but certainly after a while the sound becomes catchy.

Not an album to play at a party with friends, but a good one when you need some introspective moments alone in your room enjoying of tracks like I Feel like Surfing, Bad Moon Set or Sleeves of Jesus. 

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}A bit of blues, jazz and soul in this new cocktail served by the Finnish female singer. 

Maarit offers here a collection of good tracks for the lovers of Iskelmä music. Unfortunately I am not especially fond of the style, but surely this album will find some followers, especially for the Finnish native speakers, because the album is entirely song in Finnish.  

A relaxing atmosphere and the omnipresent feeling of loneliness and melancholy “made in Finland” are features present all over the 12 tracks of the album: songs easy to listen to like in Yö Saapui Pariisiin or Tikkurilan Asemalla. Maybe we could say that this is a record better aimed at a mature audience in their thirties or forties. For younger ones, this can turn to be a bit boring if you are looking for new musical experiences.  

Personally, if you enjoy a nice female Finnish voice, and you prefer to understand the lyrics in English, I still go for other singers like the lovely and skilled Janita. Kun Yö Saapuu is a good album if you want to fall in the arms of Morpheus and enjoy a well deserved siesta after lunch. Otherwise, you do not miss much here. 

Rating 2/5.

{mosimage}Finnish record company Spinefarm reedits the two first albums of the Finnish metal heroes. An excellent opportunity to revisit their beginnings! 

More than a decade ago a young band started to sound powerfully in the Spanish metal radio stations. People were instantly hooked by their quality, nothing to envy to other classic power-metal bands like Gamma Ray or Helloween. And of course I was another one who got blown by those young followers of Stratovarius. Now, after some years, you have the opportunity to enjoy again the first album of Sonata Arctica, the metal headers from Kemi, Finland, with a new artwork and a special bonus track added: Letter to Dana. The rest is Finnish metal history: tracks of super-high quality and speed like the blowing Blank File or the already classics FullMoon or Replica.

If you already had the album when was originally released, maybe you can skip buying this remastered version, if not, this is an unique occasion to pursue it and add to your metal collection a truly modern classic! 

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}Directed by Tim Smith, here you have an unusual live DVD with the English band performing alone in their recording studio. 

Usually when a new live DVD is released, you expect a crowd of fans cheering at the end of every song. In this unusual DVD, that atmosphere is replaced by a more intimate one, with the members of The Wildhearts making black jokes in the best English humor tradition at the end of every track. 

The Wildhearts is a hidden pearl in the worldwide rock scene. Internal problems, the continuous change in their formation and the excessive lack of attention by mainstream media have turned them into a kind of “cult” band with a good bunch of followers in every country, but never breaking the barrier of becoming hugely recognized. What you will find here is just 10 tracks with Ginger leading the steps of the band as usual, and with more acid comments than ever. A musical style difficult to define, drinking from thrash to pop influences. As extra, 2 more videos and the making of Destroy all monsters. No more, no less. The band does not fall in the mistake of trying a therapy in front of the camera and goes to what they know how to do best: to play angrily while sweating and smoking copiously.  

The Wildhearts visited recently Finland playing in Tampere during the Music and Media festival. If you had the chance to feel their power there in Klubi, now you will feel again at home sharing the studio with them! 

Rating 4/5.

Related articles:

Interview with Ginger:

http://www.freemagazine.fi/content/view/1002/152/

{mosimage}The band from Helsinki is aspiring to be the “indie pop band” of Finland. Will they achieve it? 

Indie pop seems to be living a golden age in Finland parallel to the heavy metal craziness. Underwater Sleeping Society, the band led by Okko Nieminen comes into scene with a fresh new CD full of good ideas. Starting from the artwork of the cover and the CD disc itself, that reminds in the design of an old vinyl disc, and continuing with their catchy bittersweet tunes, mixing happiness and sadness like in Saw You at my Funeral, the danceable Hurry or Worry or the introspective and semi-psychedelic Body Blues. A good effort by the Finnish boys that count with the support of one of the strongest record companies in Finland: Backstage Alliance.

USS will be touring quite extensively during the next couple of months in Finland, so you can have an easy chance to see their performance live. For the moment, they leave a good taste with this The Dead Vegas that surely will find a good bunch of fans easily.  

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}Those bastards are back! Yes amigos, the Finnish rockers with Spanish soul are back with a fucking good new CD!

I must confess I have always felt a special weakness for Los Bastardos Finlandeses, starting from the fact that they write their band´s name in Spanish and continuing with the fact that they perform a direct and blowing rock that sounds even better on live. Here you have their new piece of music, a very complete album with the familiar southern rock taste and lyrics that flirt with Spanish language in almost every song. Los Bastardos do not transmit the typical cold and melancholic feeling of most Finnish bands at all. Their music has a great palette of colors, it sounds warm and friendly, like a good tequila shot. Listen to the raged guitar riffs of Red Eyed Rock ´n´Roller, Houseful of Hooligans or Return of El Diablo and enjoy the broken voice of El Taff Bastardo.

Another strong point of the album is its great at work, that feels a bit dangerous but viciously close and friendly, just as the band itself.The Finnish Bastards have been able to create a rock album that certainly rocks, something not so easy to achieve nowadays. Larga vida a los Bastardos!

Rating 5/5.

Related articles:

Interview with Olli "Don Osmo"

http://www.freemagazine.fi/content/view/829/

{mosimage}With a very polished American rock sound, Finnish DFF are back with a new studio album that exhales good quality. 

DFF is composed by Panu Wilman on the vocals and guitars, Heikki Iso-Sipilä on the guitars and backing vocals, Henri Rasänen on the bass and Riku Wilman on the drums. I already had a good feeling towards this band when I listened some months ago to their single The Peacemaker, a feeling confirmed by this new album Breathe Again.

Dark Filfth Fraternity sounds powerful, with raw guitar riffs very present all over the album from the first track The Peacemaker, and with great vocal skills by Panu Wilman. It reminds me of some good American bands with a taste of “dessert rock”, like Queens of the Stone Age mixed with some funky flavor like Red Hot Chilly Peppers ´old material. 

For the moment DFF is trying to make a name for touring around Finland, but I really hope that the guys can have opportunities abroad to expand their horizons, because they deserve it with such a good album. Shit, I even love the album art cover, simple but classy! 

Rating 4/5.

{mosimage}After 8 long years since the release of his last studio album, this legendary American musician is back with some good old-school rock. 

Willie Basse is certainly a busy musician on and off stage. Apart from having played with the legendary band Black Sheep (that counted with infamous members like Slash or Paul Gilbert) he also enjoys the technical part of working as sound engineer. Now, Willie is back again on the road and most possibly touring also around Europe in the next few months. What you have here with this Money Grind is a collection of classic rock tunes. Topics like pretty girls, sex, danger life… 

Everything looks back to the good feelings from early 80s in tracks like (Love so) Far Away or Danger Zone: double drums, sharp riff guitars, good vocal skills and nice lyrics, this album is all you can wish about if you are a fan of bands like Aerosmith, Van Halen or Deep Purple. But at the same time, this is also the weak point of the album, Willie does not offer anything new, and we have to take into account that we are already in 2008. Certainly is a great album if you are a lover of that kind of music (as it is my case), but there is still a bunch of great material in the same genre published in all these last decades. It is difficult to make a strong comeback after so many years, and although Willie will continue being considered as a cult name for good old-school rock lovers, it does not seem plausible that a greater success is now going to knock at his door, when was denied in the past.

In any case, not everything is about selling millions of albums, but just to be able to transmit a great feeling with agood doses of rock, something that our old friend Willie achieves once more. 

Rating 3/5.

{mosimage}With such a name for the album I was imaging that Jann Wilde and his band would come from NY. No, these punk rockers are directly from Tampere rock city! 

Jann Wilder is a musician born in Riihimäki who has been around for a few years in the punk-rock scene with his previous band Rose Avenue. I must admit I had not much reference about what to expect before listening to this Neon City Rockers, but I got instantly hooked by the quality of its sound. I must admit that this is probably one of the biggest and nicest surprises about Finnish bands singing in English of 2008 for me. The band has released the album with Hype Records, the same company that works for example with others like Negative, and you can notice that the production has been meticulously taken care of. The album itself is a great collection of soft punk-rock songs; I would highlight some like Baby Said Yeah, Screams at the Ballet or Neon City Rockers. The style is perfect for reaching at a wide audience, from the young female teenagers to the older rockers.

I wish the best of luck to Jann Wilde and the Neon Comets, and hopefully they will be able to make a name for themselves step by step with his good punk-glam-rock music. If you are hungry to discover new promising Finnish bands singing in English, this album is for you. 

Rating 5/5.

{mosimage}13 tracks compose the new sixth studio album by a band that seems to be more and more on shape with every new released work. 

The band from Portland is back, after having built a solid career with their first albums in the 90s. What you have here is a solid album, almost flawless, that shows the musical evolution of a band that has got to play its cards brilliantly. The World the People Together is a blowing starting track for the record, the sound is catchy and vigorous, and it really makes you move your feet even without noticing. Although this is a rock album, The Dandy Warhols play with different approaches that make the songs sound funky and even electronic, a real effective remedy against boredom, so the record sounds dynamic all along every track. Taylor-Taylor´s vocal skills master the album offering different registers that can make his voice evolve you, or sound sexily dangerous like in Mission Control; and added to this, for placing the cherry on top of the cake, the album counts with the collaboration of Mr. Mark Knopfler and guitarist Mike Campbell in the delicious Love Song. 

A pretty recommendable album and a great step for the American guys. 

Rating 4/5.  

{mosimage}From Sweden comes Sonic Syndicate, a band that maybe rings a bell for many of you having opened the American tour for Nightwish in the past. 

Sonic Syndicate belong to the same label than Nighwish and that certainly opened them a couple of doors to tour together. Apart from that, they also counted with the help in the mixing of this new album of Roberto Laghi, a real value when facing the composition of a new studio album. Roberto has also recently worked with their compatriots In Flames, and actually both bands are hitting the road together in this 2008. What you have here is a good collection of guttural voices, killing guitar riffs and powerful drums. Love and Other Disasters sounds hammering and consistent, with the Sjunnesson brothers taking good control of the band. Fans of bands like Crematory will really enjoy them, but for some other most classic metal fans, maybe it can ending up being a bit too brutal. 

Rating 3/5.