The Loehdown

When you think of Finland, you probably think of a Nordic lifestyle: Fishing, Snow, and Ice Palaces. You may not think of music. Yet recently two bands have come out of Finland with a lot of presence. The first is HIM, the first Finnish band to have an album certified Gold in the United States. The second is Poets of the Fall, a slightly newer band whose third major album release is titled Revolution Roulette. Poets of the Fall is not currently well-known in the US but does have a strong presence across Europe. They recently played their first show in the USA at the MUSExpo in Los Angeles, demoing for record industry professionals.

For many gamers, they may have been exposed to Poets and not even known it. Poets of the Fall’s first track, ‘Late Goodbye,’ was the theme (and only) song in the sequel to the bestselling PC Game Max Payne. Max Payne 2 featured ‘Late Goodbye’ a few times, most notably playing the entire track through the credits. The song became so popular tools were developed to extract the track from the credits, as it did not exist for purchase at the time.

Following up on the success of ‘Late Goodbye’, Poets released their first album Signs of Life in 2005. A year later they came back with Carnival of Rust. Both albums were well received in Finland and Europe, including being voted Best Finnish Video of All Time for ‘Carnival of Rust’ and Best Finnish Act at the MTV Europe Awards for Signs of Life, but received little notice in the US since they were only available as imports.

Enter Revolution Roulette, their 2008 offering. The album has a lot to live up to, given the accolades of the first two albums and the pressure to make it big in the US, and it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The album is not simply “more of the same old” but shows a true progression in their musical abilities. The songs are each very in-depth and interesting in their own ways. They vary from the hard-rocking (‘Revolution Roulette’, ‘Psychosis’) to the melodic (‘Where Do We Draw The Line’, ‘Fragile’) and everything possible in between. Even within the songs the tempo and feel varies dramatically (‘More’, ‘Diamonds for Tears’). This album showcases the way Poets of the Fall can take a song and make it into a story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Most artists nowadays simply have one catchy beat that gets them the one-hit wonder, fading into obscurity soon after.

Probably their best offering off the album is the title track, ‘Revolution Roulette’. The song makes you feel as though you are in a stadium watching them play live at the best concert of your life. But beyond its sound, like so many of Poets’ songs, is a deeper meaning. In ‘Revolution Roulette’ it is that we shouldn’t give our lives to the precision and repetitiveness of machines, even as our technology brings us so many new things; the meaning in ‘More’ is that we should be happy with what we have, but we are constantly wanting more. ‘Save Me’ is a track that, despite its more upbeat tone, is very dark and disturbing, about being in the last days of despair. Each song has its own message, independent of one another, but the whole album remains cohesive. Their music packs the tri-fecta in music: Sound, Songwriting, and Dimension. Whereas many artists can conquer one or two of these points, it is rare to find one that can hit all three of them, which is exactly what Poets of the Fall achieves.

Also helping Poets’ case is the fact that their songs are now available in the US via iTunes. At less than $10 an album, it’s easily worth the money, but if you only have a few dollars, check out the tracks ‘Carnival of Rust’, ‘Revolution Roulette’, ‘Late Goodbye’, ‘Locking up the Sun’, or ‘Diamonds for Tears’ to get a taste of the whole experience. You can also download samples of their songs here.