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Tarot > Suffer Our Pleasures > Reviews
Tarot - Suffer Our Pleasures

"Behold: The Pyre Of Gods..." - 95%

Ragnarok790, April 6th, 2008

Amidst the rising fame of Nightwish following their 2002 'Century Child' album those not fully in sync with the steady stream of high quality music coming from Finland and other northern European countries may sometimes not be exposed to many great bands. Tarot, though around since 1985, seems to be one of those bands, and indeed I found out about them because I was a big fan of Marco Hietala's vocal contribution on 'Century Child'. Fear not! It also seems that many are steadily finding out about them through Marco, just like me, as Nightwish grows steadily more and more popular, and as more publicity has been put into their videos and most recent album 'Crows Fly Black'.

'Suffer Our Pleasures', however, truly demonstrates the band's longevity and malleability. It's rare to find groups that have not only been around since the 1980's but that have continually redefined their sound to keep up with (or in this case, lead) the rising and setting trends of contemporary metal styles. Since the members have put such an effort into this project's songs for the past 20-odd years its amazing to hear what the Hietala brothers and close friends can do without record-sale obligations or popular expectations. Instead we're given raw metal with more attitude and grit than some other respected and esteemed bands of comparable genres such as Kamelot or, yes, Nightwish.

The album opens with a great song, 'I Rule', where Marco delivers a truly metal performance through singing (quite harshly but fantastically might I add) from the point of view of a monster ruling all that is dark and killing people. If you think about it the chorus almost sounds as though he's advertising a new apple product (new in stores: the 550GB iRule!! Buy it through iTunes!). Here, however, is a case in point; it's sometimes easy to let the bone-crushing vocals overshadow the actual music.

It's true, there are no fancy modal guitar solos, no over-the-top keyboard runs, just heavy...yet surprisingly catchy...guitar riffs. The only thing I can criticize about the album is that while Zach is no doubt a metal guitarist, that's exactly his problem--he's as generic as they come in the way of shred solos. However, over the past couple years, I've found that while I love Marco just as much as I did back then the guitar melodies (not solos) that Zach comes up with are just as enjoyable as the actual vocal melodies (and thats saying a lot) and keep me coming back to this album. The intro riff to 'I Rule' is very unique as are many other riffs throughout the album.

By definition of instrumentation in metal genres, Tarot follows the line-up of a power metal band with Janne Tolsa on keyboards and, as mentioned, Zachary Hietala on guitar. Don't be fooled however; you won't hear lead keyboard, hardly at all, on this album, but instead atmospheric background parts. It might be a little boring to be the keyboard player in Tarot, but I do admire the person who's willing to hang out in the back of a song for the sake of making awesome music.

The rest of the album is great and gives listeners a variety of tempo and style. 'Of Time and Dust' is a great atmospheric ballad, the beginning of which makes me feel a little on drugs (just listen to it, you'll understand). 'Convulsions' is just as catchy as the others, but in the second half goes in a different direction than the other songs; a guitar solo, followed by a key solo, followed by a kick ass but unfortunately short bass solo (and trust me, though it's short its awesome). My favorite songs, however, are 'Undead Son' and 'Painless'. Both are very catchy and just have that easy-to-listen-to factor.

I can't imagine a metal-lover not enjoying this album, even those who abhor power metal bands like Sonata Arctica or Angra. This album walks the line between power metal and heavy metal, but in the end satisfies both aspects for me.

Tarot's creative pinnacle - 99%

Empyreal, February 2nd, 2007

Recently, I've come across most of Tarot's discography, and believe it or not, this weird and cool Finnish band has been cranking out great metal for some twenty odd years, not stopping since. This album is their 2003 output, and I consider it the best damn album they ever put out.

This album feels darker then Tarot's previous releases, some of which had a real party-metal feel to it (especially their first album). The production is light years beyond the thin production from previous outings. The lyrics are all intelligent and twisted, very cool. And the songwriting here is spot-on, completely fucking killer throughout the whole disk.

The songs here are very good, but none of them stands out as the best, or far better then the others. None of them sound alike, there's a lot of variety here. We've got balls-out headbangers like "I Rule", "Pyre of Gods", "Follow the Blind", and "From the Shadows." There is the ballad "Of Time and Dust", with an excellent, emotional chorus that sends a chill down my back. "Undead Son" and "From the Void" are more power-metallish tunes, and they have extremely catchy choruses. Good stuff. "Convulsions" is a creepy, dark little rocker with some killer lyrical work and a growling chorus. "Rider of the Last Day" is my favorite song here, a 7 minute epic in the vein of classic Black Sabbath, almost, but Tarot's original sound still prevails.

"Painless" is the last track here, and it's...different. It's mostly bass guitar and vocals throughout the whole song, with nothing else, and Hietala's vocals are a pained, agonized shriek. It's a great closer to the album, very gritty and dirty sounding, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It might take a while to grow on those who are accustomed to polished power metal, but it's an interesting song, certainly original.

Tarot's musical talent shines here. "From the Shadows" has a very bluegrass-sounding guitar intro that leads into a speed/thrash metal assault. There's the breakdown on "Convulsions" that gives the song a very dirty and grimy feel, as if you're seeing through the eyes of a depraved maniac. The keyboard trills on the final line of the chorus of "Follow the Blind" are excellent and give off a very eerie and dark vibe. And "Pyre of Gods" has some really cool shredding parts in the middle. I don't find myself noticing the drumming much, but it's not a detractor, that's for sure. The guitarwork is spectacular, with heavy riffs and some great leads in some of the songs. And Marco Hietala's bass is certainly commendable. See "Painless" for proof.

Sometimes the keyboards don't fit in here, though. Songs like "I Rule" would benefit from dual guitar attacks instead of the keyboard backing, although I can't call them a detractor, seeing as how they only enhance the rest of the songs here. Especially on "Rider of the Last Day", where they give a very theatrical feel to the main riffs by backing them up during the faster parts of the songs. So, I can't say there are any huge flaws here, and this is really one of my favorite heavy metal albums to date.

As I mentioned earlier, none of the songs here are that much better than any of the others. There are no filler or weak tracks ("From the Void" had to grow on me though), and there are no exceptional masterpieces that stick out as revolutionary or better then anything the band has done before. The whole album is a standout, as a whole. It's not all that progressive or revolutionary, it's just a creative, original band at the zenith of their art, perfecting it. This band follows no trends, caters to no audience, and they do not change their sound to match the popular ones of the times. They play heavy metal like it was meant to be, and I hope Tarot lives on for a good long time. Go get this album, then check out the rest of their stuff. Highly recommended.