Santa Lucia

One of those records that, everytime I play it (usually around mid-december) I wonder why the hell I don't put it on more often. I think it was Janne of Isten that recommended this to me many ages ago, but it took another couple of years for me to actually check it out - the notion of an awesome all-gal Finnish Heavy Metal band just sounded to good to be true for this jaded cynic. But it was. Abso - lutely - awesome. There's a lot of cool stuff going on on this record - the antithesis of those far too common downward slope-type of albums that start off amazing and then slowly fades away into mediocrity. Here we're contstantly charged with ripping riffs, great harmoines and curious breaks & song-ideas very evenly distributed through the entirety of the record. It's something we're not that accustomed to, so it's hard to choose a logical starting point where we start picking this album apart. Um...

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So, musical references anyone? Maybe not an intentional one, but some of the more intricate, darkened numbers like "Sairaat Sielut", "Haaremi", "Olen Syytön" and a few more remind me of King Diamond at times, much thanx to the combination of heavy yet original breaks and the superior utilization of keyboards, though the same song can sometimes sport a Voivod-type break, or a Euro-powerthrash riff. There's clearly influences of non-metallic forms of Rock Music here, like in the Hardcorish "Kiristävä Silmä" or the pop-punky "Harhaa" (man, I still fuckin' luuurws that tune!) but never to the point where it tips over into pure crossover or alt.rock. There is also Epic. The ending to the closing "Pelastus Avaruudesta" for instance. If that one doesn't give you goosebumps you simple don't deserve the skin you're walking around in, and the same could be said for the amazing "Perse Palaa", or this song ...or that song. Etc etc...

What else? The vocals! l love them. It's the Finnish language melding with the shrewd-pixie-voice of Mape on top all this riffs&rhythms-magic that might be the secred ingredience to the success of this killer album. That or all those awesome songs. Probably both.