Tietäjän laulu

Kauan is one of those bands that, on their last album, transcended the popular ideal of what quintessential doom metal is to sound like. They incorporated folk, heavy piano/keyboard laden melodies, and both harsh and clean vocals. Everything flowed very well, and was an album that is very loungy and calming.

Once again, Kauan has begun their metamorphasis into something of a folk and doom influenced lounge band, progressing further to the right, towards soothing and thought provoking music. There are stark differences that must be addressed compared to this and the last album. Sounding now more along the lines of Sigur Ros, it is even moreso further from doom, than anything. Very minimal distortion on guitar, and much more fingerpicked acoustic, and clean electric guitars with few power riffs make up the vast majority on their latest recording.

The lyrics this time, incorporate not only Finnish, but also mastermind Anton Belov's mother-tongue, Russian. Neither of these languages are known to me, but beautifully accompany the music. They are sung in a very melancholic manner, and seem to me quite reminiscent, that of which I do not know. These are my feelings when listening to how it is sung, almost as if there are memories of times past being remembered. Featuring a female and male vocalist to accompany Anton adds some extra potency to the overall feeling and atmosphere.

There is, however, which was laden quite heavily in their previous release, a very powerful and background ambience that is lacking in this work. It doesn't exactly force the album to suffer, it just doesn't have the overwhelming power as Lumikuuro has. Unfortunately it was something sorely missed with me, due to the softness of the distorted guitars. They seemed much in the background, whereas the fingerpicked chords, violin and piano accompanied with the vocals are the focus. There are some samples which add segways and bridges, for example, track 2: Kyynelten Sijaan.

Another aspect that I have found, is the redundancy of the tracks. The songs follow a straight line, and unlike the last album Lumikuuro, there are no buildups. Everything stays approximately the same density, and intensity, which makes some songs seem stretched. Although there is some added incorporations of distortion and even a speeding up of the very snail-paced songs, as seen in Pesnja Materi, it is very short lived, and disappointingly anticlimatic.

There also seems to be some measure of recycling of the melodies. The beginning of Äidin Laulu sounds very similar to Вместо Слез, and the tone of the overall album does not change much. Very rarely is there a standing out of any particular instrument besides perhaps the intermittant violins. Rarely are there any harsh vocals, as it is predominantly clean.

A shame that such a fresh sound in Lumikuuro digressed to what we have here, an above-mediocrity late Empyrium style album; but lacking the folk elements. The album is much to soft, and there is too much emptiness. Lack of atmosphere really hurts this record, because there could have been so much more added in, to increase the melancholic feel that is exuded here.

One thing is, deeper guitars. There is no problem with me having nice fingerpicking sections, but the distorted guitars is very much turned down in the mix, and takes a back seat to the synth, violin, and piano. If there was more range in the keyboard tones (I have a hard time explaining what I mean here, but the sample used to play the notes), and perhaps incorporating some layered violins to give it a more full sound. All of these ideas may have increased the potency and atmosphere for the overall album.

There is, though, one moment in this album that returns the listener to the glory of their past release: 7:31 on Äidin Laulu, which is track 4. An excellent crescendo of growl, keyboard, background sampled ambience, and violin. Unfortunately it is short-lived, and we descend back to the typical piano driven ambient light music again.

Overall, I enjoy the album, but I believe that their first work is so much more powerful, and full of feeling and intensity. I await the next release in the hopes that their thick, atmospheric, melancholic piano driven doom metal returns to the metal world, and removes post-haste it's proverbial head out of the fluffy clouds that it is thoroughly embedded at the present moment.