VASARAASIA

Taking from the point Morphine managed in the 90's, in their sax-driven rock, Alamaailman Vasaria messed up even further rock's structure. Adding this, guitars and bass were abandoned and substituted by a crafted crusade of cellos and trombones. Music was an amalgam of genres, from progressive rock, folk music, eastern popular orchestral music, even a touch of tango and a gypsies/post-circus fragrance all over. The result lyes between the boundaries of an odd, dissonant paranoia, an elegy relying much more on a mesmerizing humorous craziness than on elegance.

Nevertheless the band doesn't neglect the most subtle side of music, "Lakeus" or "Hakumies", it is not as particularly effective as it would expect from the combination of these instruments. Few times the effort is compelling and memorable, like on "Memelukki & Musta Leski", while many other moments seem to be a parody carillon: "Perikunta", "Kebab tai Henki" or "Delhin Yöt". They inevitably couldn't avoid touching Scandinavian death metal on "Asuntovelka", with the intelligently distorted effects on the cello almost resembling heavy guitar riffs.

While mixing all those influences in this eclectic melting pot, they recreated something somewhat original but, nonetheless, ended to be a failed intent to make a revolution: it is not convincing enough to please the masses, nor sufficiently intriguing to captivate the intellectual elite. 3,5 stars.