DARK MATTERS

- First Review Of This Album -

I have the music, or most of it, of CDFME's preceding album Land of Hope (2009) on my shelf, but I have hardly ever listened to it. Now being given their new release I'm happily reminded of this talented Finnish prog band. I believe this CD will gain more spins! If the former album perhaps had some uncoherence - and a bit too much of harder parts to my taste, if I remeber correctly - , this is an ambitious concept album that's being played mostly without any pauses. From the inside cover: "Dark Matters is about particular human beings whose normal personalities have also something extra, something dark & undisclosed. They want from life more than it can deliver. They don't settle for the mediocre, instead they want something from the stars... And remember: everyone has a secret!". The section titled 'Black Monk' is based on a Chekov short story.

This very dynamic work is divided into Prologue, Scenes I-III and Epilogue, each of the Scenes being approximately 14 minutes. It's not easy to "stay on map" since not all of the rather sparse lyrics seem to be printed, and since the epicness is so large-scaled, almost in the TRANSATLANTIC style. The album demands a lot from the listener to fully "get" it, but it can be listened to simply as good prog rock too. The female vocalist Katja Sirkiä is very powerful, almost operatic singer, and some supporting vocals are from both sexes.

The atmosphere is, unsurprisingly, quite dark and deep. The band is equally capable of creating gradually increasing tension with ambient-approaching delicacy and of bursting into more soaring action. Keyboards are used colourfully. Tenor saxophone has not been given very much space, unfortunately. Not that there wouldn't be gorgeous soloings for several instruments too, but mostly the band works as a tight unit. Complexity in rhythms and song structures doesn't get too self-poignant. The guitar is often played with a heavy-ish bite, which is the main reason why this music is not perfectly up to my taste, but it has also melodic strength. This is one of the most ambitious and most progressive Finnish albums recently, and I hope it will gain more reviews/rating in the Archives as it surely would deserve.

This album sounds really British, not like recorded by a nordic band - not at all. Except the dark melancholic vibe maybe, which is quite typical for such teams though. Well, what really is conspicious ... the band name, so much the more the music, appears in no way mainstream, which implies that they are convinced with a special niche by nature, but what a comfortable one! Here we have an unconventional, rather eclectic progressive rock production, while covering several styles, for instance symphonic keys, a cool jazzy saxophone and a proper psychedelic touch due to synths and guitars similar to Jeff Hamel's project Majestic for example.

Now this should be handled like an epic, hopping around from one track to the other is strictly forbidden ... eh, okay, at least it's not recommended ... because this simply will ruin the flow, the atmosphere. Wonderful expressive vocals (predominantly female) are to state, what reminds me of the Frequency Drift approach a bit. Seemingly presented as a concept album, which is related to the human beings' dark and mysterious matters, this is a secret, a mystery, may not start a fire initially, but really thrives after several listening sessions. Three songs out of five are clocking way more than ten minutes, are guaranteeing empathy, variety. And that's what I like, they deliberately take the time to let the music evolve, yeah!

You see, I consequently omit to emphasize any song in particular. Katja Sirki''s voice, opera trained I'm sure, plays an important role here The groovy rocking parts are dominated by heavily riffing and psychedelic touched guitars including solos. The rhythm branch leads the band through the (partially) complex compositions with ease as well as power. where the keyboard work is offered with diversitiy and inspiration. Some rare dissonant impressions are bringing them close to King Crimson or Gentle Giant within. 'Dark Matters' is something to appreciate, to sum it up - definitely a highlight in 2014 - 4.5 stars.