Someone wrote sometime, somewhere along the net, that Aarni’s music is doom-metal standing on its head. Well, I’m not sure whether is the head, but is sure does see the world upside down. Listening to Aarni is like taking a long walk in the realm of Alice and her wonders.
This time, the beginning lies in the front cover; this livable psychedelic drawing rests assuring that things are going to get weird and definitely not averaged in sight, even in the Avantgarde graphic zones. Well, it is quite weird. The surface brings forth musical ingredients well-known to the esoteric areas of the metal map. The doomish side manifests slow-‘n’-low guitars, dominant bass and a foul-cold atmosphere. Actually, try to imagine the result of Black Sabbath, who brought children in the meadows of the weed land, like in “Mental Fugue”, something in those tunes just screams “Ozzie and Tony’s guitar!”, even with the Spanish mood. The vocalist and the “Pinky and the brain” behind this band, Markus Warjomaa, delivers a flawless deep voice, as if a wackier version of Glenn Danzig, whispering lyrics that clearly have been written under some chemical influences – after all, who else can write a song about the European Union, such as “Quinotaurus (Twelve start in sight)”?. Maybe it’s the bleak Finnish moods, that created the “Doomintroll” character, into some other side, colorful and showcasing a lovely devilish smile. Aside from the vocal aspect, Aarni displays stoner-driven guitars, low-tempered and sluggish, that dominate most of the songs. They are accompanied by clean guitars, with crystal quality and buttered melodies, like in the epos “Kivijumala” . The songs tend to be long, as if embarking to trip in some parallel festive universe, with dancing monstrous figures into the most delusional spheres of Finland’s troll colonies.
Heaviness is not hard to find in this album, yet the leading motive is the undistinguishable atmosphere, fluctuating between space-doom metal, world music and pure psychedelic tunes (such as the damn-obvious Doors tribute in “Kivijumala”), straight out of San Francisco in its happy periods. One can also identify heavy influence of the friggin’-hammering Finnish dommsters Reverend Bizarre. In that manner, Aarni is somehow quite a brighter version of Reverend Bizarre and manifests the ability to play metal and design a little smile on the listener’s face, although quiet, large parts of the album are melancholic. Nevertheless, it makes the listener think and wonder (“what in hell’s name did Markus dude take?”), what’s going on within this music, what does it reflect? The answers lie in a long range; from a twisted “Moomins” homage to an honest tribute to musical guidelines, which came from those golden decades. Plus, the world- music structures, turning to mournful doom-metal sound and vice-versa. Aarni, my dear, just don’t give a damn.
Aarni gives us yet another world to sink in, as if Lewis Carroll was playing in a metal band, had long hair and was stuck inside a green cloud. It’s like a little Woodstock in the valley of the weird animals. It’s a chemical cocktail of the stoned and the sub-genres of high spheres; and it feels good, man.
-Jobst
VITALS:
Release: 2004
Label: Firebox
Avantgenre: Doomintroll In Wonderland
Duration: 65:08
Origin: Finland
Official site: http://www.aarni.info
Review online since: 20.03.2008 / 17:19:58
| TRACKLIST:
01 – Ονειροσκóπος |
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