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Band: Veri Jumala
Album title: Obsession With Sanity
Release date: 13 May 2014
Label: Crysella Records
Tracklist:
01. Obsession
02. Love Is The Lesson
03. Sapphire Eyes
04. Shadow With Silence
05. Dying Alone
06. Wintersoul
07. Rain
08. Dream Within A Storm
09. Endless Sorrows
10. A Story Of A Forlorn Love
11. Sanity
Wow, this is bad, really bad. Believe me that I don't like to slander artist and what they are doing or releasing just like that but this German one-man band is simply no go. Eleven tracks on this album are just a mere HIM/love metal fan exhibitions and done in an almost unbereable way, ok, there are a couple of parts that show some positive compositional bright points and talent, but looking at Obsession With Sanity as an entirety is such a bland record.
First of all the production... it sounds just like a badly recorded demo tape, vocals are too much fronted and the high-pitched laments get on my nerves. In the background there are repetitive guitar riffs, even though there are some sweet melodies and leads that show some proficiency, the same goes for drums and the rest of instrumentation. In a word the whole instrumental and vocal side are completely uninspired. Really, it sounds just like some kids with a will for talent who are in love with Valo & co. grabbed the instruments and recorded it on a tape recorder.
Here and there you'll hear some nice synths and a couple of shrieks ("Saphire Eyes") that are one of rare positive points in all this mess. Most of the tracks follow the same receipt with trying to be as much as possible romantic and emotional, with some heavy additions and obligatory sparkly piano touches. Well there are also more atmospheric and acoustic tracks like the ballad "Wintersoul" which is one of the rare bright moments in here, actually this one is pretty captivating, even deep vocals in here do the job, so I just wonder why not sticking with this formula. Later on another quite interesting ambiental piece, "Dream Within A Storm", just validates where Veri Jumala is good at. And the man showed his ability to do good ambiental tunes also in both intro "Obsession" and in outro named "Sanity".
Beside before mentioned positive moments the tracks have no special drive, have no head and tail. There's no trace of originality, not even one word connection in lyrics is something not heard before. So, I just wonder for who is this release intended, neither the genre, let's call it "love metal" like the once popular Finns did it, is in a huge decline and hand on heart even when this genre was in its heights and many bands came out with similar things there was rarerly heard something bad like this.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 3/10
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