VAINAJALA

This album came out at the time I was still being good friends with my ex-girlfriend, a CMX fan who had succesfully made me like the band too, and so I became familiar with this album via her. Looking back, this is not among the CMX albums that still mean something to me. It has no catchy pop-oriented songwriting of Aura, nor progressive tendencies of the next (double) album Dinosaurus Stereophonicus; this is pure rock with heavy bass and drums. It was produced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould and recorded in a cabin in Lapland, which maybe explains its trick-free, direct approah.

I don't mean this work wouldn't sound like a more or less typical CMX album. They are basically a hard rocking band, whatever other aspects I personally prefer in them. And no, this isn't radically different from their better albums, just with heavier arrangement and less of the softer side. There are fine and memorable moments here and there, distinctively CMX and not just any rock band. For the lyrics the headman, bassist-vocalist A. W. Yrjänä keeps diving into his usual land of poetic metaphors and Kalevala-inspired mythology. Many songs I almost like but then the chorus or something gets too heavy for my taste. But if you like CMX as a hard rocking band, you'll have no trouble with this album, strong in its style. 'Sillanrakentaja' (bridgemaker) and 'Vanha talvitie' (old winter road) are the highlights.

Vainajala is seventh CMX full-length and their most (relatively) straightforward no-frills rock album. It came out in 1998. I had been a huge fan of the band in my teens, but at this point I had started to get interested in more extreme music and this luke-warm (as I thought back then) alternative rock wasn't my thing anymore. I got interested in the band again around 10 years later and found Vainajala rather good.

It was recorded in rather short time and produced by Billy Gould (of Faith No More) and it's the most traditional sounding and simple CMX album I think. Songs are very even quality, none are bad and some are very good. Title track is massive, atmospheric and dark description of traveling to its titular "underworld" or "hades", used as a metaphor for descending into the depths of one's mind. You'll need to know Finnish of course to figure out the lyrics. "Taivaan lapset" is a quirky and catchy 7/4 time pop song and "Laulu palavasta linnusta" is a fiery love song under it's fast rock guise. Closing track "Vanha talvitie" is unfortunately not as epic and massive as they've tried, but it has worked much better live the couple of times I've seen them play it.

No prog by means, but decent late 90s alternative rock. If you really push it, I guess you can hear faint echoes of Rush and early Tool. Modest production and many average songs don't help it. Three stars, hard core proggers can deduct one.