Vetten Äpärät
Syntyi talven kyynelistä

The waters of bastards was born of winter tears, Finnish stuff in case you didn’t understand that from reading the band name and the title. Finnish folk metal to be exact, and the Finns do have a very interesting scene of such bands so I wouldn’t be very surprised if this is another exciting folk metal band. The cover certainly looks imaginative and exciting, kind of like the cover of a book of fairy tales and that may not be too far off what these guys are doing. They have a cool logo as well, so one could be forgiven for anticipating something exciting here.

Musically it is fairly exciting although not that unique. The sound and production is good, take move from an extreme metal foundation and add folk music elements and those kind of things, think Ensiferum but maybe a little more melodic and epic. It is kind of like a fantasy fairy tale. I think they do really well and I doubt many of you will complain about the sound and those things. The playing time is another matter, one hour is on the long side even though the album is fairly varied and it is a quality production and performance – with a slight reservation for the vocalist who I find a bit uninteresting and not a great storyteller.

The album in itself is very good on most part, well made, well performed and all of that, the songs are good as well so I will not dismiss it in any way. Although I would have liked to see a great standout hit song to give the album a little more flair. Fans of the similar bands will most likely find this album appealing as well; it presses the right buttons even though it doesn’t really stand out that much. It is a very solid album, and a great debut as we shouldn’t forgot that this is the first effort by these guys so some slack is deserved. I like the album even though it might not leave me with much of a lasting impression, I would say that it promises a little more than it delivers.

In the end I think these guys do well but as I stated before, the album lacks a hit track and I doubt it really stands out compared to the competition. Nevertheless, it is a promising first offering and I don’t doubt that these guys will be capable of telling us more exciting stories in the near future but until then I file this one away and tell them: Hyvin tehty, but please give us something a little more exciting in the future.

HHHHHHHH