Band:	Viikate
Album:	Askel
Style:	Melodic heavy metal
Release date:	March 2023

01. Kavaljeeri
02. Vaihtoaskel
03. Kuin Aaveet
04. Hei Syystuuli
05. Ei Loputon Yö
06. Olkitaivaat
07. Älä Pelkää Pimeää
08. Ilta On Viekas
09. Tumman Tiedon Lähde
10. Kylmä Kolme
11. Askel

Finnish “death schlager” band Viikate has long been a favourite band of mine, ever since I discovered their debut album way back in my teens. They have come a long way since then, however, so how does this new album compare to their previous stuff? I’m sadly a bit lukewarm towards it. While previous album Rillumarei! contained some of the band’s best cuts to date (such as “Susivirsi” (Wolf Verse)), it was ultimately not as good as the absolutely fantastic string of albums between 2005’s Unholan Urut through 2013’s Kymijoen Lautturit. After this album, they adopted more of a hard-rocking, radio-friendly style (even though previous albums were always catchy in their own regards) that didn’t really click with me in the way the pre-2013 albums did.

For all of you who are unfamiliar with Viikate (The Scythe), they play a Finnish folk/Western-infused sort of doomy hard rock that takes cues from schlager music, all topped off with a Finnish 1960’s aesthetic, exemplified on their music video for “Korutonta” (Unadorned) from debut album Noutajan Valssi (Reaper’s Waltz), which is one of my very favourite songs of all time. They have since moved to a more self-ironic aesthetic such as their “can’t become a prophet in your own home town” music video for “Viina, Terva Ja Hauta” (Booze, Tar And The Grave) from their excellent Kuu Kaakon Yllä (The Moon Above the Southeast).

Enough history lessons (although I suggest you check out the videos, as they are excellent). What I notice first on this latest release is a newfound sense of experimentation with synth arpeggios and a heavily danceable thump-thump that sadly is overshadowed by Kaarle’s vocals, feeling a bit out of place and working against the danceability of “Kavaljeeri” (The Cavalier), the lyrics of which deal with standing on the opposite shore of a lake and hearing people dancing and making merry on the other side (a theme that features prominently in Kaarle’s lyrics since the beginning). The album then goes full-on chugging metal mode in a short interlude leading into the second song which again is about dancing (like ghosts), tying into the album title Askel (A Step). It is a catchy song with a bit of an unpredictable pattern, but I am still not convinced.

However, the gorgeous doom-meets schlager ballad “Hei Syystuuli” (Hello, Autumn Wind), with its crushing doom riff interspersed with beautiful major/minor key trickery in the chorus finally makes me certain that it is indeed Viikate I am listening to, and that they’ve still got it:

“Hei syystuuli (Hello autumn wind)
Käy kanssani keräämään (Come with me to collect)
Menneen lehdet pihan puista (The fallen leaves from the trees in the yard)
Hei syystuuli (Hello autumn wind)
Käy enkeliksi kulkemaan (Come walk as an angel)
Kanssani siltaa puista (With me across the bridge of trees)”

Next follow three short songs which don’t do a lot for me. The following two songs are pretty nondescript ballads, one heavy and one soft, but they both feel a bit unfinished in their execution. The single “Älä Pelkää Pimeää” is vastly inferior to another single they released ahead of Askel, “Vapauden Sillan Alla” (Under The Bridge Of Freedom), the exclusion of which on this album I cannot begin to fathom the reasons for, as it really hyped my expectations for Askel, and is better than any song on the album.

The final part of the album contains a Southern gothic ballad which fails to realise its true potential, even if it does bring to mind early-era Viikate which flirted a lot with spaghetti western music (again, I implore you to check out their back catalogue). “Tumman Tiedon Lähde” (The Source Of Dark Knowledge - yes, Finnish is a way more concise language than English) is a short and sweet rocking number with a memorable chorus, and then after a beautiful spaghetti Western interlude we reach the final, and title track, “Askel”, where the whole dancing theme takes a dark turn, as the dancing steps Kaarle has been singing about throughout the album are shown to be “Yksi askel Tuonelaan / Yski askel alas Tuonelaan” (One step into Tuonela / One step down into Tuonela) - Tuonela being the Finnish mythology equivalent of Hades.

Lyrically, Viikate remains as darkly romantic and tongue-in-cheek as ever, but the album on its whole suffers due to some unsuccessful experimentation and a lack of dynamics, since 90% of the album is set to the same mid-pace tempo and foregoes the riffs and wonderful spaghetti Western rautalanka guitarwork that used to make them so alluring. Perkeleen perkele how I miss the times when they used to write ominous, fast-faced epics such as ”Korpi” (The Deep Woods) and their Finnish cover version of “In The Beginning” by Amorphis.

Excuse all the YouTube links in this review, but I suspect Viikate is a band unknown to most of you, and I want to prove the point that I feel that Viikate might have succumbed a bit too much to radio popularity, which is a blessing and a curse for many of these relatively unknown (abroad at least) hard rock and metal bands singing in Finnish, since metal is basically Finland’s version of pop. All in all, a good album taken on its own merits, but for me as a long-time fan, I can’t help but be disappointed.