AIKA LAULAA

If we don't count the EP from 2014, the albums by these Finnish heavy/psych rockers followed each other in roughly three year cycles. After Suuliekki (2018) there was a bit longer break during which the remaining core line-up of the songwriting guitarist Jura Salmi, vocalist Jan-Erik Kiviniemi and drummer Tuomas Karivaara almost called it a day. This comeback album has gained some fairly positive reviews elsewhere. Upon my first listening I was truly disappointed (mainly for two reasons), even though I can't say Sammal has ever been very close to my heart. At first I was certain I'd give only two stars, but further listening makes me feel less negative.

The heavy presence of organ was IMHO the key element to their retro sound; it was so nice and appropriate to make references to vintage heavy bands such as Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. A new keyboard player was not recruited, instead Salmi uses guitar pedals to simulate keyboard sounds. Now it's perhaps more poignant to talk of guitar dominated stoner rock. The overall soundscape still avoids anything post early 70's, and this leads me to the other complaint. The production is muddy and stuffy, and especially the vocals sound like they were recorded with ancient, poor equipment. Surely it's a deliberate choice, but I do not sympathize such lo-fi attitude.

On their earlier albums Sammal uses Finnish lyrics (with the delightful exception of 'Stormvarning' in Swedish on Myrskyvaroitus) but on this album the mother tongue is accompanied by both Swedish and English. 'På knivan' proves that Finland's second official language fits very well for Sammal. This energetic opening composition is among the best. 'Sehr kryptisch' is sung in Finnish despite the German title. On the surface it's a boring stoner rock tune, but at least there are some nice things Salmi does with his guitar pedals. 'Returning Rivers' is among the least interesting tracks; English has rarely sounded as lifeless.

The title track (well, almost) has some post-punk kind of rawness in it, but there is also progressive edge in the instrumental section. Indie-rock reminding 'Jos ei pelaa' is the most clearly SONG-based, although the guitar solo is powerful. 'λ' (the sixth track named after a Greek alphabet) is an instrumental featuring wildly whizzing & twirling sonics from the pedals plus some high-pitched voice in the background. It's good to have an instrumental on an album where the vocals sound so messy, but unfortunately the piece feels more like "fooling around" than a strong compostion per se. The nicest detail in the other song sung in Swedish, 'Grym maskin', is the piano, also played by Jura Salmi. Sadly it's played very minimally on this album that closes with a high-speed Heavy Rock tune 'Katse vuotaa'.

Safe to say that if you too thought the organ to be Sammal's trademark thing, this album may disappoint you. One has to overcome that disappointment to find out the depths hidden in the low-fi soundscape that initially feels monotonous. 2½ stars rounded up. Easily the least rewarding Sammal album for me.

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