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{mosimage}Half a year after
Apulanta released their new studio album: Eikä vieläkään ole edes ilta,
here comes a new double album in version digipak that includes a live concert
added to the studio version.

Great design
for this digipack version, with a second booklet where you can follow a diary
handwritten by the members of Apulanta. In the 15 songs of the live album you
can find all the ones that compose the studio album, although some of them with
a new approach, shorter and straighter to the point, trying to find a closer
contact with the audience. A contact that Apulanta usually achieves, being one
of the Finnish bands that keeps a better relation with their followers. The
connection with the fans is clear when you hear the live album, although
sometimes Toni’s vocals fail a bit, like in Karmaan Laina while other
times works pretty well like in the acoustic version of Koneeseen Kadonnut.

But the band
has enough experience to offer a good and consistent show that mixes perfectly the
raw punk rhythms of their beginnings with softer melodies. For those of you who
already bought the studio album, maybe there is not much point in pursuing this
new extended version, but for those who were not yet decided, and want to
discover Apulanta´s music, this is an excellent opportunity to experience their
direct melodies and honest attitude towards the audience. It comes indeed a bit
too soon after the release of the studio album.

Rating: 3/5

Toni and Sipe talk about Eikä vieläkään ole edes ilta.

Read the whole interview with FREE! here

Toni: The greatest thing with this album… well, with Kiila, the eight
album, was the biggest commercial success, nobody expected to be so big, and
with this one the big surprise is that …we did not write the same album again.
Of course it sounds like Apulanta, but it s at same time very different. It is
like revitalizing shot you can take. And it is great punk.


Sipe: I like the most the opening song: Viisaus ei
asu meissä.

Toni: I think that is the kick ass punk rock song. Sometimes when you
get it, you really know it, and well, when you write something, you really know
“hey this is good shit”, everything feels so right and it is great to make a
video for it. We went to Rovaniemi. We shot the video outside, in t shirts, and
it was freezing… Sipe was feeling it in the fingers for a couple of weeks. That
was a hardcore video! But it turned out absolutely great. Viisaus ei asu
meissä is the best video after 16 years. I had not been so happy about a
video like with this one.

The first single: Koneseen pudonnut is a lot better in the album.
For me it does not work as a single, I don’t know why, it does not reflect the
feeling of the album.

When we decided the first single there were only 5 songs done. Sometimes
choosing the first single is something you have to do with a limited amount of
material. I think it does not represent the album well, but I cannot complain.
The track that ends the album, Ylijäämävalumaa
is my other favourite

Sipe: And one thing in Apulanta is that we try not to have “fillers”
tracks in the album.

{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}One of the nicest
surprises in the Finnish heavy metal scene this year: Waltari with
their new album: Release Date.

Waltari has a long
story, being formed in 1986. The band from Helsinki started singing
in Finnish, but the changed to English language in the mid 90s. What
we have here is their new album with a very suitable catchy name:
Release Date. You can find powerful metal, raw and direct,
that could remind in some moments to earlier Sepultura, like
in the theme Wish I Could Heal.

In most of the
themes background vocals play quite an important role although Kärtsy
on vocals manage pretty well, great skills showing an amazing
capacity of registers that for some moments could sound even like
Ozzy Osbourne. The band is not afraid to experiment with more
electronic sounds like in The Incarnation Party, but they do
their bests when they just simply go to make business and release a
load of good heavy metal, like in the first track: Get Stamped,
which literally will blow your minds.; for my taste, one of the best
Finnish singles of last times, or in the not much political correct
Let’s Puke Together.

The band owns what
is maybe the most important requisite in music to get success: a
personal style that is transmitted from the design of the cover to
the lyrics. It was about time to have Waltari´s Release
Date. Pretty recommendable.

Rating: 4/5

{mosimage}Despite
the fact I consider myself a fan of Matti Johannes Koivu’s work both in his
solo career and the band Ultramariini, I am probably not the right person to
review this album. No person whose age is a two-digit number is, since Topsi ja
tohtori Koirasson is an album for children.

Children’s music has often
been criticized – and for a reason – for underestimating it’s audience. That’s
not the case here – it’s actually quite surprising, how much this sounds like
Koivu’s “adult” records. Koivu and his band perform their folk-influenced pop
songs with great passion and care, like they always do. For example, the track
Räksytän could be, at least with a bit different lyric, from one of his other
albums.

What make this suitable
for kids are, indeed, the lyrics and the story, both penned by author Juha
Itkonen, and the album is actually meant to accompany the book he has made with
his wife Maija Itkonen, also entitled Topsi ja tohtori Koirasson. Juha Itkonen
has proved himself to be a very good author with his two novels aimed at the
adult audience, and the story here – about a dog afraid of the sound of buzzing
– is genuinely touching.

The story is told both in
the songs and in the narrative parts, which works very well. Taru Kivinen’s
narration empathizes beautifully the different elements of the story, and the
same goes for the musical parts. Besides Koivu’s band, the album features many
guests, of whom the most interesting must be Jarkko Martikainen in the role of
doctor Koirasson.

There are many reasons why
an adult would like to be a kid again. Topsi ja tohtori Koirasson is certainly
one of them. And any parent looking for children’s music that treats it’s
audience with respect and integrity cannot go wrong with this album.

4/5

{mosimage}Jarkko
Martikainen has maintained surprisingly good quality in his work both in his
band YUP and his solo career. Martikainen’s latest offering, a live album
consisting of songs he’s performing accompanying himself with an acoustic
guitar, is – for the most part – no exception to the rule.

He is one
of the sharpest lyricists in the current Finnish rock scene, and a very good
also at composing songs and performing them on stage. Still, it is somewhat of
a surprise that the acoustic versions of the songs work so well, since one
would think they would need the elaborate arrangements YUP and Martikainen are
famous for.

Live albums, just like
live gigs, are very much about co-operation with the audience and the
performer(s). Hyvää yötä, hyvät ihmiset is, in a refreshing way, very different
from live albums recorded in huge arenas, where you can only hear thousands of
anonymous people screaming. Here, people shout out their comments and wishes
for songs Martikainen should play, and he answers them most usually in a very
funny way. The record is very warm and intimate. People seem to be quite drunk,
but that’s the way it usually is in Finnish rock clubs.

The only drawback of the
album is that after only two solo albums, Martikainen may not have enough of
different songs for a well balanced live album. Muovailuvahaa is a previously
unreleased track, and Elegia is Timo Rautiainen cover (although the lyrics are
penned by Martikainen as well). All the other songs are from Martikainen’s two
solo albums.

This isn’t really the same
thing as seeing Jarkko Martikainen live, but live albums can rarely replace the
real thing. However, as a live album, it is different from the norm in a nice
way, and as a proof that Jarkko Martikainen is one of the most talented Finnish
songwriters, it works rather well.

3/5