UTOPIA PERFECTION

From Finland comes Discordia, a band that has offered a whole lot of effort and imagination in their very good debut album "Utopia Perfection". This album's most distinctive features are energy and melodic dynamics. I'm pretty much convinced that there's something stereotipically Scandinavian about their core sound, with certain similarities to late Landberk and "Signal to Noise"-era White Willow, but on the other hand, Discordia sets itself apart from the grey density of Anglagard and early Anekdoten, as well as the full frontal retro-feel of Wobbler. Discordia, despite its name, builds its core sound on the accordance of the various inputs of guitars, keyboards and occasional sundry instruments (clarinet, tin whistle), in both the calmer and the stronger passages. The female vocals may remind you of Evanescence a bit, but the sung lines (both male and female) are closer to Gabriel-era Genesis or VdGG. At times, Hänninen and Väänänen turn their throats into the realms of pastoral music and folk (Celtic, Eastern European). The album kicks off with colorful vocal interplaying soon joined by powerful guitar riffs and convenient organ flourishes - 'Foreseen' flaunts a series of effective chord progressions, delivered enthusiastically on a not too fast tempo. Tempo is really fast in 'Mystery Man', whose hooks bear a near-pop-rock feel, but still contains some progressive tricks as rhythm shifts and delicately elaborated mood changes. 'Speak Directly' is one of my personal favorite songs here, with the clever use of santur among the guitar phrases and leads: this song sounds like a marriage of 75-77 VdGG, Hoyry-Kone and Landberk. 'As Above So Below' uses folkish airs in its playful ¾ tempo: the violin melodies enhance the folkish factor properly, and so do the guitar leads, while the vocal arrangements provide a somewhat eerie ambience to the main motif. 'The Group' brings back teh spirit of track 2, albeit with a rockier attitude and a more intrincate structure (although never overtly complex). The addition of certain Celtic tones helps the track to become interestingly varied in its own scheme. 'Interlude' highlights the drummer's position in the instrumentation, with the chorale guiding the way for the emergence of dialogues between guitar, keyboard and bass. The first 'Slave Planet' continues in the semi-tribal vein of the previous track, while the second 'Slave Planet' shifts into an intimate plain of melancholic thoughts. The latter gets a very interesting prelude with its textures on vibes and bass clarinet: the main motif arrives and turns things really emotional. This is another definite highlight of the album, a good example of diversity moderately construed upon a solid foundation of cohesion. 'The Comment of the Wise' is a powerful instrumental in which the band sounds (to my ears) as a mixture of heavy prog and "Storm Signal"-era White Willow, while 'Mighty Power of Metal' sets a weird yet attractive combination of pop-rock, Celtic stuff and heavy prog. The albums is closed down by 'Giant Dwarf', a song that finds the band exploring once again the Celtic thing, only with a pronounced ingenuity, as if they were trying to bid their farewell with an air of candidness. "Utopia Perfection" is an excellent progressive record, with material good enough to make us aware of Discordia as a band that will continue to bring us good music in the future.