COMES TO TOWN

Less than a year after their formation the young folk of Finland saw the time was ripe for entering studio to record their first four song ep. They open the record with the first song they ever wrote together, The Fool. This balladish song starts with a moody guitar intro and later features a good guitar solo, a fine instrumental section in a noisier vein and respectable bass work throughout. They would play this song live for two years, work on the arrangement and with the later addition of a viola player turn this ok song into a great piece of music. They had the core of a good song here already, but it took them two years to fully realize its potential. Next we have a piece called Strange Rhythms, a song apparently sung by bassist Pietarinen in a muted low unmusical voice. Again some fine bass work and a couple of bright guitar spots, but the song itself is drastically overlong and plain unmemorable. Unmemorable is a good word for describing the next song, Horizons, as well. Brought in by a drum intro the song comes, stays for a short while and then leaves without leaving an impression. Fine tapping action on guitar though during some verses. I've seen the band live about 15 times in the past couple of years and they've never played these two aforementioned songs in concert during that time. For a reason, I say. The final song of the ep, To the Blackening Sea is a welcome step up, and still a concert favourite. Opening with a latino-kind of guitar intro the song features a three minutes long upbeat instrumental intro then turning into a calm verse followed by a short guitar solo and then picks the tempo up a notch for the next verse and chorus. In the end we return to the intro and end with some fierce riffing.

The band was still a very raw unit at this point. There are good spots and promising songwriting but also some utterly forgettable waste of space. They could've made a fine first single out of this material. There is a superior version of the Fool on their full length album and a live recording of To the Blackening Sea at their Myspace site (at the time of writing this review at least) so if you're not hell-bent on getting every 'folk release out there, there's no reason whatsoever for you to seek out this one. Well, it's sold out anyway.