Comes to Life

I love the band name; Statue… I mean, what can be more static than that? Add the laughable “sword & sorcery” cover and boom… you already have loads of reserves regarding the potential music content. On the other hand, it’s Finland, for crying out loud; it’s got to be something worth hearing. After all, apparently this statue is about to come to life…

and it does alright, half-Golem half-Frankenstein; in other words, expect heavy stiffness, or stiff heaviness to lead the show, the guys nodding in the direction of the Bay-Area but think its more cumbersome, less expressive side (Defiance, above all). It’s by all means professionally executed but somewhat monotonous stuff which rigidly welcomes a few experimental half-thrashy jumpers (“Political Pollution”, “For Your Country”) those trying to win a more volatile territory in a way similar to diversifiers like Death Angel’s “Act III” and Flotsam & Jetsam’s “When the Storm Comes Down”. For those to succeed, though, one needs a really capable melodic singer, but our man behind the mike here exudes no emotion whatsoever, delivering in a rough semi-clean dispassionate baritone the whole time, think Janne Joutsenniemi from the guys’ compatriots Stone.

Just when you’ve thought you’ve figured it all out way before the end, comes the speedy roller-coaster “Believe or Not” to bang even the stiffest heads out there, followed by “Revenge”, an excellent tech-thrasher with overt echoes of Stone again. Once rolling, the stone doesn’t stop, the listener already jumping with joy on the uplifting speedy delight “Easy with Money” before the title-track puts a wide smile on everyone’s face, 2.5-min of superb lashing all-instrumental intricacy, the epitaph to end all epitaphs.

Wow… the finale is an eye-opener in every way, and although it doesn’t exactly compensate for the less exciting first half, it surely brightens the spirits and awakens half the statues around. The latter must have started opening their eyes on the frequent shouty choruses which will remind of Anthrax, the vocalist’s colleagues trying to pour some life into his firmly detached performance. It’s not the most orthodox effort out there this one, especially with this surprisingly very flexible ending, but at the same time it’s not hard to detect this lethargic inertia-induced demeanour, like the band prefer lazing around, or are probably not truly motivated in order to produce a statue… sorry, standout performance…

cause they definitely had what it takes to hit the heights reached by some of their compatriots, not to mention inspiring a handful of fans to build a statue in their honour. It nearly came to life, their repertoire, be it with a hypnotic heavy sound or with a rousing albeit a bit belated set of fireworks.

The first time I heard about Statue, I was surprised at the band’s place of origin. I consider myself to have a fairly extensive knowledge of thrash, but I can’t think of another band in the genre that are Finnish in origin: I might just be drawing a blank. Regardless of where these thrashers originated, it’s a shame they had such a short career. While I wouldn’t put this album in the same league as “Forward to Termination” or “Demon Preacher,” it’s certainly better than a huge majority of albums in a genre flooded with cookie cutter material.

Statue’s main strength is that they are fairly unique. Amidst Slayer clones and Metallica worshipers, it’s nice to hear a band that sounds different. Perhaps there are other artists that share the band’s style, but a million names won’t pop into the listener’s mind when they hit the play button. Maybe the lack of familiarity in Statue’s sound is due to the fact they are late comers to the scene-in other words; they were trying something different.

Point of fact: Face the Life, the first song on the album, has almost a groove oriented intro riff. The listener is left wondering if he or she should bob their head from side to side or raise the devil’s horns and head bang. As the intro fades into the main riff, it becomes clear the latter is more appropriate, yet the groove leaves a lasting impression. No, it’s not like the highly overrated Pantera; but rather, a tasteful addition to the crushing, mid-paced, six-string assault: think celery in your Bloody Mary, or red pepper in your pizza-the groove doesn’t overpower the tasteful “chug.”

When track two begins (with another fairly unique into), it becomes apparent that Statue likes to maintain a moderate tempo. The fantastic Finns favor a pace more consistent with “Bonded By Blood”, than “Reign in Blood.” Such is perfectly acceptable, for bands shouldn’t play at three hundred beats per minute just for the sake of speed. Acts such as Dark Angel or Sepultura sound good at blazing tempos, but Statue would not: and they have the tact to realize it. The tinges of “catchy” infused into their sound would be negated at hyper-speed tempos.

Song craft is where many bands fail, but Statue has the art form pegged. Sandwiched between excellent tunes, are good ones. Not a single bad song can be found on the album, but “Up and Down” and “For Your Country” are a weaker for sure: leaving somewhat of a gap in quality for a brief time. Likewise, the closing instrumental is nice, but not overly impressive.

Production wise, Comes to Life is pretty damn solid for an unknown thrash band. For one, the bass is audible: quite uncommon in thrash. Accolade number two-thick, punishing guitars. The drums are well produced, but the snare lacks a “snap” that would accent the meaty guitar tone. Finally, the vocals fit nicely into the mix-not too high, not too low.

In terms of musicianship, Statue passes the test, but never treads on thin ice with over-technicality. The riffs are delivered with precision and are not overly simplistic. Audible bass tracks really add a nice touch to the overall sound, for the listener can actually hear another layer of solid rhythm patterns to accompany a skilled, though not monumentally talented drummer. Good old Ari’s vocals are pretty good for the genre: not the best, but never annoying. Statue has all their ducks in a row.

What more can be said? Statue is relatively unknown, but released a collection of songs that pisses on hundreds of thrash albums I’ve heard.

Melodic thrash metal from Finland? To me it sounded so strange but it’s real. Back in the 80s there was someone who believed in another form of metal instead of the classic death metal and these Statue are here to tell us this. Their album is from 1990 and the most extreme genres were already arisen more or less all over the northern countries but this band didn’t care and so let’s get ready to enjoy the technical and the melodic level of a truly good band.

The first bands that came to my mind while I was listening to this album were Paradox, Toxik and Hades. These three bands were so important at the time for those who wanted to listen to good and melodic music with thrash metal influences. The vocals are mostly melodic but never on high tonalities and also this is good to me because they are not exaggerated and somehow they go well with the rest of the music that is never too fast but quite catchy and harmonious. The tempo is more mid-paced but catchy and some restarts are good to break the sound.

For example, the first two songs are perfect examples of well balanced heaviness with melody. The tempo here is far from being impulsive and the guitars are great at creating a complicated carpet of almost progressive riffs that don’t forget the thrash metal attitude in the palm muting parts even if they are mixed with lots of passages on the chords and duets. “No Way” is the first faster song we meet but the breaks are always present and mostly progressive. I don’t like progressive metal at all, but the thrash metal virus (good in this case) contributes in adding an impulsive vein that continues also with the following “Political Pollution”.

The fast bass drum parts are well alternated to the up tempo and the mid-paced moments are in pure American style and sometimes remind me Anthrax too. The sound is full and sharp and able to exalt all the instruments, bass included. Its sound is always pounding behind the guitars and the solos are shredded in most of the parts, creating a good contrast with the more technical parts by the rhythmic guitars.
As you saw, the length of the songs is quite short but with all those passages and tempo changes, this band gives you the idea of completeness, and it’s not just an idea…These musicians are truly good and in such short extents they are able to be catchy, technical and convincing.

To a more “in your face” and simple song like “Up and Down”, we oppose the tragic feeling of a darker “For your Country”. The guitars have something of more modern but nothing annoying at all because the groove metal is not so rooted in these parts and a hardcore vein is always present, even during the chorus and the tempo. “Believe or Not” is more energetic and with more parts on up tempo but the funkish and the hardcore elements are always present during the more technical breaks.

Overall, I was quite surprised by this band. I mean, I didn’t expect such a good quality level from an almost unknown band and once again I was wrong. This is another proof of the various injustices by the world of music. This band surely deserved more attention and I hope to have contributed to a tardy but deserved tribute.