Viikate - Unholan Urut
Long Play Music
Melancholic Metal/Rock, Finnish "Rautalanka"
9 songs (40:23)
Release year: 2005
Viikate, Long Play Music
Reviewed by Kayla

Viikate is a band I came to know through a friend of mine who loves all things metal and Finnish. Unfortunately, this means that I can’t relate a whole lot of biographical information on the band itself, as their website is entirely in Finnish, and my vocabulary in that language is woefully inadequate for anything beyond the most basic of interactions.

Unholan Urut is one of the smoothest and most soothing albums I’ve ever heard, although the pace on even the slowest tracks is still kept at a fairly energetic clip. The vocals are done in a rich, clean tone well-suited for the hard rock riffing that comes through on tracks like Ajakaa!. Most of the album concentrates on melodies, not riffs, however, with hooks coming thick from the first note until the last. The opening and closing tracks are quieter than the majority of the album, and create a solid set of bookends. The opener and title track begins with a crystal-clear lead from the guitar that’s quickly joined and nearly overtaken by a bouncy, ethereal melody and a vocal line that wraps through the song like a ribbon.

The focus of the album remains squarely on the melodies from start to finish. Even the solos are far more melodic than technical, rising above simple drum rhythms and a muffled bass line. The drums remain simple through the album; no fills (or anything but a steadily pushing beat) distract the listener from the thick, smoothly flowing melodies. The only thing that stands out is the drum tone–while the overall production value is quite high, the drums (and especially the snare) have that hollow, tinny tone that usually marks albums with sub-par production. However, this doesn’t necessarily detract from the album as a whole. The overall tone is very cool and crisp, and the odd drum tone complements that.

Since the drum and bass lines embrace simplicity and work mainly to support the guitar lines, the vocals have a complexity that makes up for the interest lost in the lower lines. The thickness of the melodies is complemented in the occasional layers that appear in the vocals, and harsh, hoarse screams add emphasis and a bit of bite. “Scream,” however, is a bit of a misnomer; while that particular term tends to have mostly metalcore associations, this is worlds away from Matt Heafy (Trivium). The tone is still the deep, rich one used in the clean vocals; it’s just been dragged over the serrated edge of a rusty saw or a floor covered in low-grade sandpaper.

Viikate seem to like solo intros; no fewer than three songs have them (not counting the title track, since the lead-in is so short). In Vesi Jota Pelkäät and Autuaat, however, there still remains a bit of drum and thythm guitar work respectively. Viikate are quite skilled at using relatively simple tools to maximum advantage; these lines do a great deal to bolster the power of the melodic solos.

The only real oddity on the album comes in Ajakaa!, one of the most energetic songs of the lot. It uses a little run up the main guitar’s fretboard that sounds undeniably similar to Surfin’ USA by the Beach Boys. Unfortunately, I can’t translate enough of the lyrics to Ajakaa! to tell you if it has anything to do with surfing, USA or otherwise.

Killing Songs :
Unholan Urut, Ajakaa!, Autuaat
Kayla quoted 87 / 100
Other albums by Viikate that we have reviewed:
Viikate - Marraskuun Lauluja 2 reviewed by Joe and quoted 80 / 100
Viikate - Marraskuun Lauluja 1 reviewed by Joe and quoted 86 / 100
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