Harri Kauppinen
Helvetin Laulut

Songs from hell is what Harri Kauppinen has to offer with his debut album of eleven hellish songs and 40 minutes of darkish music. Amusing that he selects to do the singing in Finnish, not really a language known for its lyrical qualities. But the lack of lyrical qualities in the language doesn’t seem to be a problem to the good Harri, he manages to tells stories about burning grounds, marble statues and many other things.

The songs are gothic in style; the cover shows more or less what you can expect from this album. The tempo is rather low, Harri sings well and the production is very favourable for this kind of music. The lyrics in Finnish are very good; Harri sings really well and brings out the most of the songs. And even though the tempo is quite low I think the variation is rather good throughout this album of eleven tracks and 40 minutes of playing time.

It is a really good album with strong songs and great feel. Fans of the gothic side of music should appreciate this album; it presses all the right buttons and some additional ones that makes this an exciting album. I like the songs and I like the typewriter thing they use during the spoken word parts, it adds a nice feel to them and a sense of depth to the album.

It is an album that comes highly recommended, it has great songs and great feel. And when I say great songs I mean that they are all very strong and none of them really stand out but I thing the song about burning ground Maa Palaa and the one called Ikoni are the best two of the album. And if you do worry about the Finnish lyrics Harri has been predicting this and you get a translation so you can understand what he sings about. I think this is an album to check out.

HHHHHHH