Known as the crazy metal rockers from Finland, Waltari celebrate 25 years of existence and 20 years from the release of their first album. Frequently combining quite diverse music styles as alternative metal, progressive metal, death metal, hard rock, heavy metal, hip hop, industrial, pop, punk, rap, symphonic metal, techno and thrash metal, most of the band’s music is written by bass player Kärtsy Hatakka, while they lyrics are dealing mainly with personal feelings of anxiety, loneliness and the cruelty of the world, often with heavy irony and sarcasm. They crafted totally new combinations, sounds and approaches, pioneering and assimilating everything that is currently new and becoming a melting pot of musical genres.
Released 11 studio albums and 3 compilations, “Covers All!” deliver a nice collection of covers from diverse artists such as System Of A Down, Midnight Oil, Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Madonna, David Bowie, The Cure, etc
I guess it’s almost impossible to deliver a worthless cover of “P.L.U.C.K.”, but Waltari managed to bring to the surface something incredible evil and brutal while the groove of the song is extremely modern and pumping. Perfect opening. Taken from “Hard Candy”, Madonna’s eleventh – and one of the most forgettable – album, “Give It 2 Me” is twisted from an upbeat dance song into a pounding rock/metal anthem. I was afraid of this one, but they work it out efficiently. “The Dead Heart” was taken from Midnight Oil’s probably best album, but definitively my favorite, “Diesel and Dust” (1987) and Waltari changed its vibe, but they came up with a quite catchy version including a twist of Scandinavian metal spirit into it. Dingo is a Finnish rock band I do not actually know, I read that they fused Finnish melancholy with catchy rock melodies and “Levoton Tuhkimo = Duke” is actually a dynamic metal ballad with almost all the good and bad ingredients that means. “Look Back in Anger” is a song written by David Bowie and Brian Eno for the album “Lodger” released in 1979, while Bowie is one of my favorite artist. Waltari put together a fast, breath-taker rock construction with a groovy funky taste, but somehow preserving the Bowie’s spirit in it. Anthrax and their “Caught In A Mosh” needs no introduction, but this sounds just like Leningrad Cowboys – figure it out for yourself what I mean.
Hassisen Kone was a Finnish rock band, founded in 1979 and disbanding in 1982 after delivered three highly successful albums. I missed them too, but “Plastic Ships” sounds mad and intense enough to fit into this collection of song. The Cure are at least God-likes and Waltari pushed further and darker their “One Hundred Years”. Quite different from the original, still kind of spooky. Curious choose from Iron Maiden: “Infinite Dreams”. But it works. Even better than I would imagine it.
Over 14 minutes of Pink Floyd’s “Saucerful Of Secrets” dark and mysterious experimentation came once again alive as the final track of the record. But the track is running up to 32 minutes. Got your cookies around minute 27. 🙂
Tracklist:
01. P.L.U.C.K. (System Of A Down cover)
02. Give It To Me (Madonna cover)
03. Dead Heart (Midnight Oil cover)
04. Levoton Tuhkimo = Duke (Dingo cover)
05. Look Back In Anger (David Bowie cover)
06. Caught In A Mosh (Anthrax cover)
07. Muoviruusuja Omenapuissa = Plastic Ships (Hassisen Kone cover)
08. One Hundred Years (The Cure cover)
09. Infinite Dreams (Iron Maiden cover)
10. Saucerful Of Secrets (Pink Floyd cover)
Tours in Germany, France and Czech are planned for February – March 2012.
Waltari – Official Site
Waltari – Official Blog
Waltari @ MySpace
Waltari @ Facebook
