Rajaportti

Rajaportti is often said to be Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus's best album, and if it's not the best one, it's at least the band's commercial breakthrough. The hit single "Surupuku" was played almost everywhere in Finland and the band became one of the hottest acts in Finland. The band introduced their metal sung in finnish to the finnish mainstream. They gained many awards and Timo Rautiainen was even voted as "Man of the year" in one finnish ladies magazine. The texts of the band are mostly argumentative and often preaching. There's no such thing as happy song in the band's repertoire. Timo Rautiainen has written lyrics to three songs. Three of the album's texts are written by Jarkko Martikainen, a man behind the finnish prog rock band YUP. Thought the band had released some material in german, the album's lyrics are in finnish, which is a big problem to many people. And that's a shame.

Album's general tempo has been slowered, and there are more melodies, especially on Rautiainen's already personal vocals. Instead of global tradegies, the band uses now the finnish-man's personal tragedies. The three guitars still growl on the background. The cd has taken it's name from the public sauna at Tampere, Finland, by the way.

The band has always had three guitarists. There's a question: is there one too many? The album is first one to introduce new guitarist Jarkko Petosalmi to the audience. The album has actually nine similar, but all hit songs. Without those solos (can they actually be called solos?) on the background, the songs would be too similar.

The first song is the strongest argument of the album. It's simple and short (less than two minutes) but yet still powerful. It actually uses the clichés used by various finnish rock acts on purpose. The first single track and the "smash-hit" is named "Surupuku" (=The mourning suit) and it's probably the best known song of the whole discography! The song tells about themselves, thought it isn't full of self-importance. It actually tells about their stage costumes (all black). I even saw couple of lines from this song in someone's obituary in the local newspaper! The third song is more traditional Niskalaukaus than the other two tracks together. This is too a single track, but it represents the more sad part of the band, what is actually the most of the bands repertoire. It has sad guitar solo parts in the background, what really gets even a constantly happy person down. The next song is actually a cover, from the finnish singer/songwriter A.P. Sarjanto, who is pretty unknown in his homeland. The song isn't so depressive than the previous one, but it's still sad. The band makes it's own version, what can easily be mistaken for the band's own material.

The band has been previously worked with finnish singer/songwriter Marja Mattlar. The next track is written by her. There's only Rautiainen singing and the string quartet backing him. The next song is about family-violence, what is too big problem in some finnish families. The middle-aged man with booze is not a good combination. Musically the songs also represents the basic Niskalaukaus-stuff, but it's not so sad as the track number 2. Song's lyrics are written by famous finnish songwriter, Vexi Salmi. The next song is also a traditional Niskalaukaus-song, with crushing guitars, backing solos and dark vocals. The song number 8 starts with acoustic guitar. Then it turns out to be sad and ponderous ram. This was also released as a single.

Before the last song starts, Rautiainen's daughter reads a poem, what she wrote to her father. It's a nice poem, if you understand finnish. The saddest song of the album is it's last song. My personal favorite tells about a boy who losts his father in a traffic accident. The story is true. Did I mentioned that the song is sad. Well, I say it again! The song is so sad and depressive, and not only by it's lyrics, that it can make the most cold-hearted bastard touched. Sniff.

The band's probably best release so far. Their style is a bit more polished than on it's two predecessors. This album has defined their sound a bit more.