Miriam is a hardrock/metal band from Finland. This is their debut album called Karu Maa released on Bullroser Records.
The album starts with a short intro which gets us to the song Samalla viivalla. This is a nice song, I really like the piano melody. I got the feeling to sing along. But there is the first problem the lyrics are in Finnish. When checking the booklet everything is written in Finnish. So I think this cd is more for the Finnish people than an international audience. Now back to the music.
The next song is called Pahan juuret. This song is like most of the songs around the 4 minutes. It’s a quite compact song, again I really want to sing along with it. Pahan juuret means something like ‘Root of Evil’. (According to google translate) I couldn’t translate any of the lyrics but according to the bio are the lyrics easy to identify. They speak the language of the close relationship between human sinfulness and merciful God.
The next song Aarre saviastioissa has some nice keyboards and solos. I really like the faster part around 2:30. Love the instrumentation the combination of guitars and keyboard is great. This is my favorite song of this record.
Anteeksi is a ballad it’s also a bit shorter. He sings this song in the lower range not his strongest but it works. Nice guitar work at the end. Taakkojen alta is also a slower song but it’s a bit more atmospheric.
The album end with Karu maa. This is a lovely song a great way to end this record.
Overall is this a nice album. The songs are catchy and the instrumentation is good. The only downside is that lyrics are in Finnish and this album is meant to be singing along to. But that’s really hard for non-Finnish speaking people. But the album stays strong. Highlights are: Aarre saviastioissa, Karu maa. Recommended for fans of HB and melodic metal in general.
Rating: 7/10
Current Line Up:
Ossi-Hill Reini: Vocals, Guitar
Kimmo Köykkä: Guitar, backgrounds
Ville Korkiamäki: Bass
Ilari Taipalus: Drums
Tracklisting:
1. Intro
2. Samalla viivalla
3. Pahan juuret
4. Aarre saviastioissa
5. Kymmenen käskyä rikottavaksi
6. Kauna
7. Anteeksi
8. Vaientakaa
9. Koiruus
10. Herää
11. Taakkojen alta
12. Karu maa
Record Label: Bullroser Records, 2011
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