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Waltari: Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die!

02/10/04 || Statik Majik

The whole name for this album is actually “Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death metal symphony in deep C”. That might tell you a bit more about the general contents of this album. Or not.

What to expect from this album then? Glad you asked, I’m just about to tell you. With loads of paragraphs too.

Even though this is released as a Waltari album, I assure you this has very little to do with the stuff we’re accustomed hear from them. This definitely isn’t heavy rock or whatever you like to call Waltari’s music. This one is more like a combination of… well, all kinds of stuff.

First of all, this is a theme album. I think that originally this wasn’t even supposed to end up as an album. It was performed in 1995 at a large art festival, “Taiteiden Yö”, in Helsinki Finland. Obviously a lot of people missed the show (probably cos everybody drinks like hell on that art festival), so maybe for this (or some other) reason they decided to record the performance in a studio and release it the following year. Smart move. Although I am sure the actual live performance was a lot more of an exciting and powerful experience than this album can ever be.

The story itself isn’t that special, so I won’t bore ya with it more than necessary. It probably made more sense live than on album. In short: it’s a story about a dude, called John Doe, whose life is controlled by machines and feels miserable about himself. An angel (performed by opera singer Eeva-Kaarina Vilke) is there to cheer up all the mortals and decides to assist Doe on his journey to a better life or something. And the root of all evil, the oppressor, is the computer brain (performed by Tomi Koivusaari and Kärtsy Hatakka). So this basically is a story about the struggle of these three spirits.

All in all, the story ends well and everybody is fucken happy and “simply decides to vanish into thin air and disappear into the pages of internet”, as the booklet tells us. I think Fear Factory approached similar theme with their Obsolete album, and their version of the story wasn’t this… naïve.

Enough of the story line. Let’s focus on the music for a change. And there’s plenty to discuss about that.

Check out the list of performers below. That definitely is “the” Tomi Koivusaari from Amorphis sharing the vocal duties with Kärtsy. Since this is a mid-90’s release, Tomi sure as hell growls like he did with Amorphis back in the day. And Kärtsy does his version of growling/screaming here as well, although most of the time he focuses on doing the more “normal” kind of vocals.

So, we have death metal here. But what else? Elements of techno/industrial. Kärtsy has always been into techno, if I remember correctly, and he pulls a lot of those elements in here. The song “The Top” is a perfect example of this. I said “perfect example”, not “perfect song”. I think that this song should’ve been left out of this album. Reason follows later.

In addition to death and techno, you probably guessed that there’s some classical music in here as well. Avanti! symphony orchestra is responsible for all the strings and whatthefucknot is included in a large scale orchestra. And the orchestra sounds fucken killer when supported by heavy-ass guitars. And let’s not forget the female vocals. Opera-stylish female vocals. Yes, some could say Nightwish stylish, but I won’t. Turunen kicks ten times more ass that Vilke does, but that’s just something we have to deal with. Vilke does a damn good job on this album and contrasts nicely with Tomi Koivusaari’s vocals.

Tracks 1 and 5 are classical music, no vocals here whatsoever. I take that the first song is supposed to be an intro for this exciting story, and the other one probably an interlude of some kind which gave singers a breather during the live situation. These two songs take up about 20 minutes of the album, which is way too much for me. But the other tracks (except the last one) are solid gold. Well, more like silver. Heavy-ass metal and especially the contrast among these three vocalists, is killer. The production on this album is more than good, if ya ask me.

The last “real” track, “The Top”, is a techno influenced, happy song. Probably worked live, but on the album I think it’s a bit corny when compared to the rest of the songs. Well, it makes an interesting ending for the album though.

So, there’s still one track, “How low can you go?”. It is actually a bonus track and not even listed on the album cover. And it’s definitely Waltari, not death metal. It is a short heavy/hard rock song, and it has nothing to do with this album. I wonder why they even put it in here and not on any of their “normal” albums. You won’t lose anything if you skip that one.

Overall, I’d say that this is a damn good album. It might have too many diversities in it, but generally I dig it. Yes, there’s a better way to use these kinds of elements, and four years after the release of “Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die!”, The Project Hate MCMXCIX appeared and did exactly that. Yeah, “Cybersonic Superchrist” (and every fucken album after that) was more than the perfect example of how to do this kind of musical mix correctly. But then again, “Yeah! Yeah!” dates as far back as 1995, so I can forgive that at times some of the stuff on this album sounds more than out of place.

In 1996 I could’ve given this album easily an 8 or even 8,5 out of 10. But now that time has passed I can be more objective towards this album. I definitely recommend you to give this album a listen or two. It still sounds fucken fresh, considering it was written probably like 8 or so years ago.

7,5 /10

Information
Released: 1996
Label: Spin Records
Website: www.waltarimusic.com
Band
Kärtsy Hatakka: bass, vocals
Jariot Lehtinen: guitar
Roope Latvala: guitar
Janne Parviainen: drums
Other performers
Tomi Koivusaari: vocals
Eeva-Kaarina Vilke: vocals
Sami Yli-Sirmiö: additional guitars
Kimmo Kajasto: keyboards
Avanti! Symphony orchestra, conducted by Riku Niemi

Tracklist
01. Misty dreariness
02. A sign
03. Deeper into the mud
04. The struggle of life and death of “knowledge”
05. Completely alone
06. Move
07. Time, irrelevant
08. The top
09. How low can U go?

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