Kalmankantaja "Viimeinen Virsi" Cassette

Hammerbund 2018 Pro-tape edition limited to 100 copies

One of four full-length albums released in a surprisingly short space ( four months from August when the first "Ikuinen taival" was released to the end of November when "Musta lampi" and this one came out together), "Viimeinen Virsi" - meaning "Last Hymn" in English - has all the makings of an epic sprawling major work. For the most part this is a fairly loose and repetitive album with an emphasis on mood and full immersion. The spiky acid guitars rain down over your head and slow percussion thuds away. The music is usually glacial in pace and deep unbearable sadness hangs heavily over the sorrowing tremolo guitar showers.
The tracks - whose titles, when translated into English, refer to depression, suicidal thinking and taking one's life in that order - tend to pass one from the other without much change in pace, rhythm or even in riff and melody. The album is clearly intended to be heard as one over-arching work with the four tracks forming a clear narrative. With each succeeding piece, desperation grows, as can be heard in the increasingly unhinged singing which becomes screechy on the title track. The vocal sounds more distant on the title piece as well - the protagonist has made his choice and is about to farewell us as he passes onto the next stage of existence.
Much of the music is overwhelmingly sad yet in its own way restrained and dignified and this is the main thing in its favour. The sparing style emphasises the Finnish lyrics which puts the rest of us non-Finnish-speakers at a disadvantage - but at least we can appreciate the music and atmosphere. Apart from this, the tone throughout is even and the music does not build up very much. When the climax comes, it is something of an anti-climax: of course we know what's going to happen and we expect a major change in the music, but because the album stays quite minimal and doesn't generate much drama or tension, the peak just passes as expected and the final track is left to mope about and fade off.
While it's good technically and there is quite a lot of power and aggression, the whole recording seems very remote and uninvolved and listeners may find connecting with it hard. Had there been some real emotion and drama put into the music, the repetitive nature of the tracks would seem more justified. For an album just shy of 40 minutes, it seems much longer due to the repetition and monotony.

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