Board of Aves
Decade After

These Finns and their aves I suppose is a logical thing to think, I have heard of board of directors and stuff but board of aves, what is that? They do have a cool avian cover artwork that should indicate a touch of humour wouldn’t you say? The story of these Finns starts in the Palokka village outside Jyväskylä in Finland, and it dates all the way back to a time when technology was seen as witchcraft and witches were burned in the forests and stuff like that, this means of course 2001 when they were formed in another name apparently. The laziest band in town then manage to make their debut album a decade after, called simply Decade After possibly because of the long time before managing a debut album.

Modern rock music with some pop touches, I don’t think they are too similar to any other band of the genre I have heard. Unlike most debuting bands it seems as though they have found their own identity. The ten tracks of the album are decently varied and presents for an interesting combination, the production is quite cheaply sounding though and can be considered something of a letdown perhaps. I think also they have a touch of melancholy in their music, maybe that is something of a Finnish touch. One can think though that they do not show much of a twittering like in a board meeting of aves, perhaps that is why they have opted for such a cheap production rather than trying to find something of a higher quality.

If all tracks were of the same quality as the opening track Wasted I would have been really impressed with this album, it isn’t. There are two more tracks worth of an honourable mention in the second one Settled Mind and eighth Deepest Dreams but otherwise the tracks are quite bland to be honest and feels more like fillers for making an album from these three very good tracks. Worth mentioning is though that this band has personality and doesn’t feel like just another carbon copy of something else, maybe they just should be a bit less lazy coming to producing and writing good songs.

Not really something that makes your feathers stand on edge from its greatness but I still like this album, the band is fascinating and they have an interesting sound that they should work more with. The sound is maybe not reflected by the cover art but the artwork is worth an honourable mention as well as it is fun and cool, the music may not be fun but the opening track wasted is rather great.

In the end I would call this a good debut with personality and a cool sound, even though it sounds a bit cheap at times I still find it good. But to be honest the thing to keep from this album is the track wasted, the rest doesn’t do that much for me. If you like modern rock music you will probably find this quite good and as a debut it is good as I have already pointed out but the cheap sound makes me believe that a decade after this review it will be quite dated.