Noutajan valssi

Viikate is a strange phenomenon in metal. The band is currently listed as a folk metal band in the Archives, but I have my own serious doubts about the viability of the classification; a fan of Korpiklaani, In Extremo and other such bands will probably be in for a surprise, if they purchase an album by Viikate. A pleasant or a nasty surprise, that depends on how open a mind the folkmetalhead has when he hears the first tracks of any Viikate album.

First of all, their music does not meet the intuitive definition of folk metal. When other folk metal bands are pretty much defined either simply by the use of old instruments, or by the more demanding use of folkish melodies in metal, Viikate does things differently. For the instruments they occasionally use some older types of instruments, but not the medieval flutes, juohikkos or bagpipes; more likely they include a modern accordion or other similar instruments for a bit of mood, or for an instrumental piece among other songs. Their basic sound is that of a classical four man band: drums, bass, two guitars and clean vocals. One of the guitars is strictly a rhythm guitar, while the other one is usually an older kind of hollow-body semi-acoustic one. To describe the sound is a much harder task: they aim for -and achieve- a lightly metallic version of kind of music played by the UK band The Shadows and others from the late 1950's. Imagine the famous song Apache by The Shadows, played with a solid modern rhythm guitar with a metallish sound helping. Remember the original clean lead guitar sound and lots of echo. Then add a carefully restrained, depressed clean baritone voice and melancholic, slow melodies, and you have a pretty good approximation of Viikate.

The second problem with the folk metal classification are the songs themselves. While some of them are originally traditional songs, the versions by Viikate are closer to such great masters of post-WWII music in Finland as Tapio Rautavaara (I know, this explains nothing to anyone outside Finland, but bear with me). Some are actually traditional folk songs, first modernized by Rautavaara, then covered -or emulated- by Viikate. So, there are no actual folk songs on any of their albums. What there is, is more like old 1930's to 1950's schlagers combined with late 1950's rock'n'roll with early undistorted electric guitars, more specifically "rautalanka" as it was called in Finland; "iron string" would be a direct translation, but once again, the translation loses something essential; we have a strange language.

So, don't expect to hear merry fluting, goblins pillaging and burning, stories of gallons of mead and folk dancing, tales of heroes beating the crap out of each others with blunt weapons, or anything the term folk metal usually conjures. The lyrics are, if possible, even more depressing than the melodies. They describe alcoholism, death, melancholy, and generally losing and everything changing for the worse. Frost, hunger, loneliness and all-embrazing hopelessness are frequent subjects, and the lyrics are generally reflected in the melodies and sound. The attitude is that of giving up for the last time, with humility and completely without aggression.

Noutajan Valssi (The Reaper's Waltz) is the first full-length album of the band. The preceding EP releases are still quite unknown and difficult to find, but have fortunately been compiled as the Kuutamourakat compilation. Noutajan Valssi pretty much defines the sound and style of Viikate, and the later albums follow it without any deviations from the norm, other than improved production. The album opens with an instrumental, all-accordion piece, aptly named Alkusoitto (Elämä on niin pirun raskas juttu toisinaan), which roughly translates into Prelude (Life can be such a damn heavy burden sometimes). That should give you an idea of the average merriness level of Viikate. The album also ends with an instrumental, and in between there are seven melancholic, depressed, gloomy and generally unhappy songs. The general mood is truly far removed from your average drinking-and-brawling atmosphere of some stereotypical folk metal.

This album started a tradition -or a joke- of Viikate: while in the early 90's the CD releases contained extra tracks compared to the vinyls and cassettes, Viikate usually does the reverse and adds a bonus track to the vinyl version. This is probably due to their very retro image; these albums are magnificent attempts in achieving a 1950's atmosphere, and the mildly pro-vinyl approach is just a small increment to add to that. The bonus track on this vinyl is a really classic song by Tapio Rautavaara.

Unlike the later albums, none of the tracks on Noutajan Valssi really stands out as a hit single, but the whole is very stylish and expresses the main theme, finnish melancholy, with amazing tenderness and respect. Perhaps the more refined sound of the later albums, especially that of Kaajärven Rannat, lose something of the rough down-to-earth expressive strength of Noutajan Valssi. In the world of Viikate, music is listened to with an ancient gramophone in a log cabin, drinking hard liquor and contemplating cooking a soup of poisonous mushroons for the whole family after the crops fail and the only cow dies. Sometimes there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but usually the stories are about the exact moment when the said light finally gets turned off.

The excellence of Viikate may be difficult for a foreigner to understand. The importance of the lyrics (in Finnish), ties to older musical pop culture of Finland, and the way their music has been shaped to describe the local melancholy, all turn Viikate into a band that has quite specifically been designed for local consumption. I still recommend people from other countries to give Viikate a try: just remember the caveats above and shed your folk metal expectations.

Finding the rating is once again a difficult task: the later albums contain more memorable hit songs that have actually gotten some radio time, and the quality of their production makes them slightly more enjoyable than Noutajan Valssi. But in the final analysis I feel that this likely is a more important work, since everything by Viikate after this owes much to this one. Also, the rougher production just adds spice to the songs. I'm going to rate this one as high as I would rate the later releases, as I can't make up my mind on which one is better. And since there's really nothing to compare this to, the rating is rather irrational, and simply conveys my enjoyment of the album, nothing more.

One question remains: how would I classify Viikate after questioning its folk metal status? Honestly: I have no idea. I've never heard any other bands that are even close to Viikate soundwise, and I believe folk metal is the closest established genre there is. So let's leave it the way it is. There's no question about Viikate belonging in the Encyclopaedia, just the genre is obscure and unique.

With the exception of certain intrumental stuff that will never appear on the Metal Archives, Viikate is probably the only band that manages to accomplish the near-impossible: my dad (almost 60 years old) recognises some of the songs AND we both like them. That won't happen again for a while.