### Oddland: Away from the watching eye

#### 16/03/10 || Wooderson

These four dudes from Finland fall into the dreaded alternative/rock/metal category but before you click the back button, hear me out! If you can appreciate solid musicianship and quality songwriting, chances are there is something here for you to enjoy.

Their Myspace page lists In Flames, Faith No More and Tool along with a few others as being musical influences and I have to admit, I was intrigued but also cautious. Too many bands cross-breed genres with disastrous results and fortunately, this wasn’t the case here. With the occasional melodic guitar riff that would be right at home on “Whoracle”, the Pattonesque vocals (without the acrobatics) and punchy rhythms that would make Tool or even Meshuggah fans proud, you might be thinking these guys are nothing but a rip off of their influences but that would be inaccurate. Their amalgamation of genres creates a sound that Oddland can call their own and they pull it off pretty damn well too.

It’s unfortunate there are only 3 songs here as it’s over before you know it but this is a minor, insignificant complaint that takes away nothing from the music found within. The big injustice here is the thriving sea-of-shit bands out there that are signed while bands of this caliber are not. Hopefully this is a temporary issue for them and I’ll be looking forward to a full length release in the future.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Website: Oddland MySpace
- Band
- Sakari Ojanen: vocals, guitars
- Joni Palmroth: bass
- Ville Viitanen: drums
- Jussi Poikonen: guitars

- Tracklist
- 01. Above and Beyond
- 02. Still the Spirit Stays
- 03. In Endless Endeavor