VÄISTYY MIELEN YÖ

Finland's virtuosic prog folk rockers release their first album in 15 years--their third overall since their world debut on Colossus Magazine and Musea Record's debut release collaboration, 200s's Kalevala - A Finnish Progressive Rock Epic.

1. "Tyttö Trapetsilla" (4:42) light, upbeat flute-lead acoustic prog folk opens sounding like a JETHRO TULL song before Risto Pahlama's doubled-up vocal enters issuing forth a fairly standard melody. As the song plays out it turns out that the song as a whole is a rather standard ABABCAB construct as if aimed toward radio play. (8.5/10)

2. "Äiti Maan Lapset" (18:50) a beautiful piece of prog that feels Italian! It's on a par with some of the masterpieces Musea Records and Colossus Magazine were able to publish with their earliest themed albums like The Colossus of Rhodes, Kalevala, and Odyssey: The Greatest Tale (to which the band began contributing in 2008 with each of the three Divine Comedy trilogy renderings). Plus it seems to have that same rigorous adherence to 1970s period analog instruments and recording techniques that the Colossus/Musea projects asked (required) of their contributors. There is a melodic, laid-back, pastoral feel to this song that reminds me of some favorite albums of mine like MAD CRAYON's 2009 masterpiece, Preda, and Chilean band AISLES' 2009 and 2023 masterpieces, In Sudden Walks and Beyond Drama, respectively. Of the many themes and movements of this long, labyrinthine song, there are not that I dislike--even the weird guitar- heavy one in the seventh minute--none that don't reach directly into my core as if to satisfy some long-forgotten itch. While several motifs feel somewhat familiar (in a warm, friendly way), it mostly feels quite fresh and original--and while the singing is not knock-your-socks-off amazing, it is all quite perfectly interwoven within the flow and context of the current weaves--as if better appreciated as just more instrumental threads in the overall tapestry. Also, while no one instrumentalist or solo stands out as warranting special recognition, it is instead the selfless giving to the whole that, for me, deserves the accolades. I know it's early in the year (I'm writing this in late March) but this song one will be a tough one to top in my year-end list of 2024's Best Prog Epics and Mesmerics. (39.75/40)

3. "Pitkät Jäähyväiset" (6:38) a beautiful CAMEL-like palette and flute melody open this song for the first 30 seconds before a swelling organ chord signals the band's laying down a very standard and sedate straight-time motif for another ABABCAB pop song with the C section being drawn out for a couple minutes instead of relegated to an equal 30-second proportion that the other sections get. Long fadeout.(8.75/10)

4. "Perhonen" (6:45) beautiful pensive Fender Rhodes play opens this ruminative piece. The keyboard is slowly, very gradually expanded to other synths and some percussion until the three-minute mark when the song finally breaks into something meatier. Very CAMEL-like. This new vocalized motif has a nice pace and circular rising five-chord progression while retaining the Camel-like Mellotron strings chord support. Of all the vocals on the album, this is probably my favorite (though it's still not great). Guitar and piano play are nice--also Camel-like, but the song kind of ends as if it was just a set up for the next song--which makes it feel a bit cut off or incomplete. (13.25/15)

5. "Vuoren Rauha" (7:37) spilling over from the previous song, synthesizer wind sounds move it forward until processional piano and Risto Pahlama's priestly male singing voice take us into a kind of Russian-feeling dirge. This sounds very much like something off of AFTER CRYING's great De Profundis album from 1996. Nice work with orchestral percussion, flute, and Mellotron before the drums kick in. In the fifth minute (!) we finally kick into the realm of a rock instrumental palette. This turns out to be a very pretty almost-1960s song (due to the presence and extended solo of Hammond organ. I like it. (13.375/15)

Total Time 44:32

A/five stars; despite less-than-stellar marks for the album's other four songs, the presence of the 19-minute epic--the best epic I've heard (so far) in 2024--elevates this album to a higher level than it might deserve but such is the possibility of an album as opposed to that of a single song release. Highly recommended.