Jäähyvästi

Saattue, another Scandinavian melodic death/doom hybrid that serve the scene primarily to interest simpletons like me. After catching a glimpse at this bands dedicated page, I wasn’t overly interested in them until I decided to do a bit of further research into their sound. ‘Jäähyvästi’, the debut full-length contains an engrossing amount of additional musicians whom, for all intensive purposes, raise the levels of excitement about the prospect of hearing this band in full. I imagine bands like this would catch the eye of many fans, especially those looking for something divergent and that deviates along the lines of standard doom, since this band primarily are a doom band, with subtle melodic death influences that barely claw their way to the surface. In some ways, though not many, this Finnish band remind me of Sweden’s Draconian, a doom/gothic hybrid also pioneering their way across Scandinavia. It wouldn’t be presumptuous to suggest that these two are going to compete in years to come for the crown of the Scandinavian title for best band of this type since Draconian are already a leading act and Saattue are capable of great things, on the basis of this full-length. Though Saattue aren’t up to the same level as the legends Draconian, they are moving in the right direction.

There are even subtle hints of bands like Kauan, though I know the two were never influenced by each other, its merely a coincidence that they produce similar sounds on occasions, though it is in scarcities. Take ‘Hyiseen Veteen’ as the prime example of such a coincidence. The clean male vocals remind me of Anton, Kauan’s vocalist, an awful lot. Both sing in their respective native languages, utilising their accents to full affect, which adds a sense of honesty to the portrayal. I’m unsure as to which vocalist it was that provided these sumptuous backing vocals, but I’d be interested to hear more from him. There is a small chance that the lead vocalist for the band provided them himself, but its unlucky as his repertoire seems to revolve solely around providing harsh grunts, instead of the usual doom growls that accompany most bands sound. Its unfortunate that Saattue don’t decide to persist with the folkish take the backing singer has on their own interpretations - though these elements of the exquisite instrumentation do persist on other songs, like the notable self-titled track, which uses some emotive vocals alongside clean guitars seemingly inspired by bands like Opeth and crushing guitars that resemble bands like the aforementioned Draconian. There is a real nice mixture of influences and resemblances to bands I wouldn’t normally have expected to find here, but have.

I cannot resist those clean backing vocals, though they often take center stage to dramatic affect. They’re divine and lush, littering the soundscapes with even more emotion. I understand that this is Saattue’s piece, it was never intended to be led by a backing vocalist, but I find the back vocalists, even the female one, to be more enjoyable to listen to than the regular vocalist, who spits his venomous lyrics at us like a Shakespearian actor displaying the greatest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Oddly enough, this was never intended to be a full-length release as the additional information will notify us; “’Jäähyvästi' was supposed to be a self-released EP. Right after recording it, the band got a record deal, so they decided to re-record old songs and release a full-length album instead. The original EP would have had the following track listing: 1. Vieraaseen Multaan 2. Jäähyvästi 3. Hyiseen Veteen 4. Varjojen Saattue”. It is a slice of good fortune that Saattue were picked up by an established record label before deciding to release this as a shorter EP and further still, decided to persist with re-recording this and editing it with a few other songs. This inspirational record could be a future hit with more recognition, recognition that it most certainly deserves for its mesh of lovable genres, though I’m not immediately a fan of melodic death.

In actual fact, I dislike it when its alone, but alongside the crushing ways of doom, it stands up to most challenges put in front of it by smoothly riding side-by-side with the more impacting doom genre and its characteristics. Once again, I think you’ll find that the most subtle aspects of this piece go further in drawing in the audience with emotional movements that swing devastatingly affective, but unexpected right and left hooks. Having already been firmly planted on the ropes by the folk inspired backing vocals and the clever synths that entwine themselves around the crunchy guitars, the subtleties are enough to have us reeling from the impacting journey across the moody soundscapes that drift from one area of feelings to another without second notice. Songs like ‘Kaaosmaa’ are good examples of how Saattue manage to build one side of emotional soundscapes, with clean vocals and synths, then exchanging views with the harsher sections, like the distorted vocals (which contain some death growls) and the slowly moving, but still devastatingly brutal guitars. Saattue have a promising future, that’s for sure.