Label: AOR Heaven Records
Release date: May 28, 2021
Production: TripleVision
Album length: 47.45 min
Genre: AOR/Heavy Metal
Rating: 10/10
Tuple. Well, it reads French, but it’s Finnish. Tommi “Tuple” Salmela is a Finnish music legend whenever the talk turns to heavy metal and rock of any musical stripe. Over his career the guy has played with Tarot, and in 2012 he founded the hard rock outfit Lazy Bonez, with whom he put out three albums, none of which was a tribute to the much older Slovenian metal band of the same name. At the end of this May he released a second album under the Tuple project, following up its predecessor “Wooden Box,” which came out last year. In style. In high style. The inspiration lasts and Tuple keep forging the steel. Because it’s hot, so it bends and twists so willingly.
Tuple is an unbelievably musical beast. This is AOR revivalism that’s hard to find parallels for when it comes to the hypersensitive pursuit of top-notch musical results. The previous album already served up that kind of sensationalism, which, coming from a musician as seasoned as Tuple, with such a rich musical mileage, isn’t even surprising. On the new album Tommi again works with an important musician, without whom there most likely wouldn’t be anything. Not most likely, actually, but definitely nothing. This guy goes by the nickname Riitis, real name Jukka Riitaluoma, and he’s the main composer and the arranger responsible for all the compositions on the new album.
What “Welcome To Hell” delivers is a truly Finnish approach. A hyper-produced piece of work, with wound-up eighties synths backing signature guitar phrasing, and the result is a musical hybrid you could sinfully label AOR heavy metal. It’s a heavyweight champ when it comes to bombast and pomp. It probably can’t go any further. This production serves up the eighties on a platter, especially the second half, 1985-1988. How does the snare drum hit? With an incredibly piercing, contrasty burst of lavish echo, set against the high, shimmering synths and guitars. Over it all reigns Tuple’s brilliant vocal, harmonized in just the right places, which deepens the album’s pomp even more. Any one of these tracks could easily run for Eurovision. Yes. But that was a long, long time ago. The album is closely tied to eighties pop, so this time we can happily ramble on about an almost purebred AOR album, but one that’s just as firmly saddled up with heavy metal. It has a special charisma, which won’t be foreign to anyone who knows the Finnish scene, with bands like Battle Beast, Leverage, Brother Firetribe, Beast In Black and, last but not least, when you chew your way through to the chorus of Pride, you’ll feel like you’re listening to a lost Lordi track from the band’s classic days, one that would be treated as an evergreen today. Meanwhile, the collision of pop and metal peaks in Not Enough To Love Me and the especially fascinating Survive (Noora Louhimo adds a special finesse in the duet), next to which even The Night Flight Orchestra come off as semi-professional (which is a bold claim). Unlike the band I just mentioned, there’s no trace of parody to be found in Tuple, though the two groups will definitely bring the same crowd of listeners under one roof. The grabby moments don’t end there. Pick your own. I’ve pointed out the most “shamelessly” catchy ones, but I’m relying on my own ear, so the final verdict is definitely yours.
It’s worth adding that a loose concept ties the songs on the album together. “Wooden Box” already had a concept about the life of Tommi Salmela, but for the new album the crew picked a different story. It takes us to the 19th century. To Colorado and the town of Aspen. To the mining days. In orderly and disorderly fashion. To a hornets’ nest of card players, prostitutes, rogues inclined toward dishonest ways of getting rich, gunslingers, miners of every sort, and let’s not forget the Ute Indians. Silver fever unites them all. So welcome to the real boiling point of a hornets’ nest.
A phenomenally produced, composed and arranged new studio album, to which you can neither add nor subtract anything, because the substance could collapse in no time. It’s genuinely optimized to perfection. An album that fills the listener with vibes, unfolding in a bubbling, bombastic pomp of cheerfulness, while that true Finnish melancholy only blows in properly with the hugely dramatic finale, closed out by yet another downright brilliant composition. That’s Silver, which is a bit more dynamic than the rest and is a special closing mini EP of the album. An album that’s perfected to the max. Top-notch. An album that grabs and leads fans of this kind of sound in an instant. It carries you and fills you with heartfelt fire. From the first second to the last.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Welcome To Hell
2. Hold On To Me
3. 1-2-3-4 GO!
4. So Damn Cruel
5. Pride
6. Stay
7. Not Enough To Love Me
8. Hiding In Plain Sight
9. Survive
10. Lies Grow Lies
11. Silver
Lineup on “Welcome To Hell”:
Tom Rask – drums
Jykä Sirainen – bass guitar
Riitis – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Tommi “Tuple” Salmela – vocals, backing vocals
guest musicians and vocalists:
Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast) – vocals on Survive
Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) – additional backing vocals
Janne Tolsa – mixing, mastering, additional keyboards
Erkka Korhonen – guitar solos on five tracks
