HUONO PARTURI

Höyry-Kone beginning this album with an adaptation of Beata Viscera, a piece of 12th Century music by Pérotin. Giving way from monastic chant into the frenzied Univers Zero-influenced chamber prog of Höyry-Kone may be a shock to the system, but it's hardly the only surprise you'll get listening to the various twists and turns on the album. Take the second track Terva-Antti Ku Häihin Lähti - kicking off with a dark guitar-dominated range reminiscent of Larks' Tongues In Aspic before an invasion of violin takes the lead, with the two battling it out for control over the rest of the composition. If this is the last of Höyry-Kone's studio albums, let us be glad they lasted long enough to give us this.