Band:	Waltari
Album:	Release Date
Style:	Alternative metal, Avantgarde metal, Progressive thrash metal
Release date:	February 2007

01. Get Stamped
02. Big Sleep
03. Let's Puke Together
04. Cityshamaani
    1 - Night Flight
    2 - Good Morning
    3 - Colgate County Showdown
    4 - The Incarnation Party
    5 - Sympathy
05. Hype
06. THD
07. Sex In The Biergarten
08. Wish I Could Heal
09. Spokebone

As is often the case with bands that hop from one genre to another on every track (or even within tracks), the end result tends to be a bit too disorganized and schizophrenic to appreciate fully, even by those of us who love music of this sort. Inevitably, what happens is that we create playlists from songs on the album that go well together or make good use of the "Next" button on our media players. I am sure fans of bands like Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Carnival In Coal, Dillinger Escape Plan, Glassjaw, Secret Chiefs 3, Buckethead, Fishbone and Praxis are quite familiar with this syndrome. Luckily, there are some great exceptions to this rule and I'm happy to say that, in my opinion, Waltari's latest release Release Date is one of them.

I'm not sure what magic ingredient is responsible for this afore-mentioned feeling of cohesion of this album; however, it is certainly there and allows me to listen to it happily from beginning till the end without any breathers. Interestingly, although Waltari is still as all-over-the-place as they ever were, and haven't really changed their 'formula' on Release Date, the album is nevertheless extremely listenable. Perhaps it is some leap in songwriting that is hard to pick up due to the inherent complexity of the band's music? Either way, going from the funk-metal of "Get Stomped" to the melodic attack of "Big Sleep" and the thrashy aggression of "Let's Puke Together" is fluent and not as jarring as it should be - a great feat indeed. Of course, the fact that there are also some genuinely catchy and excellent songs here isn't exactly a turn-off. "Morning", "The Incarnation Party" and "THD (Lethinen)" are very clear examples of this. Although my esteemed fellow MS reviewer Jeff still finds this album somewhat indigestible, I feel I must point out that I pretty much completely disagree with him on this point. Release Date is probably the most fluent album Waltari has released in a while (at least since Rare Species, although that album was also much less diverse) and it goes without saying that not only is it a great musical achievement on the band's part, it is also proof that this is an album that all of us should have in our record collections this year.

Many experimental and adventurous bands feel that it is OK for them to make albums that are jarring and confusing collections of diverse songs without caring about the general flow that they achieve as the end result. Release Date escapes this stereotype successfully and was a constant element of my own playlist for the last few months that I had it. There are really no big mistakes on this record and I can definitely recommend it as a relatively easy representative of ambitious metal music.