Vinide – Reveal

[schema type=”review” name=”Vinide – Reveal” description=”Label: Inverse Records” author=”Mguel Melo” pubdate=”2018-02-01″ ]Another symphonic metal album by a Finnish band. The first time I heard the album I thought: “too cheesy, boring and what the hell are they thinking… why?”. But it is not that bad, not that bad at all.

Where to start? There is a very tenue borderline in symphonic metal that bands need to respect in order to keep the solidity of a concept album. “Reveal” is a sci fi rock opera attempt in its traditional elements but I couldn’t help feel that it was lacking connectors and structure despite the flair and blasting instruments. The first time I heard, I thought it was way too much keyboards for my taste, with interesting guitar riffs but a weird story. But seriously weird. I mean, who did think of this, how much vodka did you have before you wrote this story? Well, you can hear the adorable Finnish accent in the spoken tracks and that’s absolutely cute. The evil genius voice on the brink of madness and the lady mentioning an evil conspiracy to migrate people’s minds into machines, now that’s enough. The story needed much more work and polish to be good. To come up with a symphonic rock/metal opera is not simple. Music capability aside, it requires to have a good structure: beginning, middle and end. Vinide could definitely been better, building a concept album over more albums, growing a little bit more experience before adventuring into the Opera world.

Dramatic incursions aside: their music grows on me. At first, I didn’t fully like it, but suddenly I was repeating the album again and again. At some point I was singing in my head “The Beginning Scene”, while waiting for the bus in the middle of a snow storm. The second time I played the album in my office, it got better. The third time was quite enjoyable. Many movies and books work this way, if they are good. The first time you hear it you call it nonsense. Then you start noticing the little details again and again, the more times you hear it. Power riffs, good drum breaks and rhythm variations. The vocals are steady. Bringing madame Minna Seilonen to help out with the soprano is a bonus and if it they want it epic, and with even a violin on the top is the feast for every symphonic metal fan. Compared to their first album, “Odes to thought”, there is a difference in attitude. I sense a more experience band but I also miss the raw feeling that a band has when they first record. But Reveal is a cool album after all.

The truth is, they beated me by repetition. So if you don’t like it the first time, throw it more 2 or 3 times on a loop and you might come around. And I would see them in concert nonetheless.

Line up:
Jaakko Juntunen – Drums
Mikko Kähkönen – Guitars
Heikki Polvinen – Keyboards
Elmeri Kinnunen – Vocals, Guitars
Minna Seilonen – Guest Soprano and Violin

Tracklist: 01. Intro 02. The Beginning Scene 03. Breakout 04. Reveal 05. Anger 06. The Rat 07. Plea 08. Emanuel 09. The Truth 10. The Plan 11. Believe 12. Bombs 13. Another Dimension 14. The Great Voyage 15. Save the Earth

Links:
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