Entwine – Painstained

Releasedate: 28-01-2009; Label: Spinefarm Records
By: Elvira Visser

The Finnish band Entwine was founded back in 1995, when they started out as a death metal ensemble from Lahti. Since then the band had changed because they felt they were too limited when playing death metal. They wanted to use their creativity and Entwine evolved into a more melodic band.
The band had quite some line-up changes as they started out with a complete different singer in the beginning, Mika Tauriainen joined the band around 1999. Their album Dieversity (2004) had electro influences but the follow-up album Fatal Design (2006) their music became heavier, now they are presenting their new album Painstained and this album sounds even heavier but also melodic. The guitars have great riffs and solos, which was less on other albums.

The album starts with “Soul Sacrifice”, a nice intro where you immediately hear the pounding drums, maybe influenced by their death metal roots? On this track there is also some electro tune present. What I found one of the unique point of Entwines previous CD’s is the way Mika Tauriainen sings: very melodic but still melancholic. The Finns know how to make their lyrics contribute to the melancholic character of the Entwine sound.
On this album the guitars seem to be more out there, great bass lines and sticky guitar solos. In the rhythm section Aksu Hanttu and Joni Miettinen clearly form a strong backbone, adding this to the guitars and melodic vocal lines their music is definitely catchy. “Strife” will be released as a radio single. A great catchy track which is one of the tracks that stick to your mind first while nodding your head along. On “Beautifully Confined” Mika sings about “strangers we are, but still the same as we be in love”. I think that if you have never heard entwine, being a stranger to their music, you can then fall in love with their music when listening the first time. “Greed of Mankind” and “Dead by Silence” are tracks that I really like, the latter one has a light screaming part and a funny ending. “Caught By Desire” has this little beep, nothing and then it starts, I do not know if this is a mistake on my version but I quite like it. “Goodbye” starts with piano notes and Mika singing very emotionally about tears and that you realise to say goodbye at certain occasions. Well it is a bit of a sad track, but it is also the ending of this CD. Hiili Hiilesmaa produced the album who worked with Apocalytpica, HIM and Scentenced.