The long-awaited first full-length sit-in of Finland’s time travel collective Vinum Sabbatum will finally be held in late August. As the leaves slowly turn green into yellow, brown or red the seven songs on “Bacchanale Premiere” shall linger on the winds. And while the season turns these five musicians from Hyvinkää dare to step away from the charms of their EP “Songs From The Convent“: An atmosphere of a musty rehearsal room, garnished with rotting furniture and nicotine air fresheners.
This time vocalist Janne Salo, guitarist Juha Köykkä, organist Tomi Korpela, bassist Mika Pajula and drummer Jarno Jaakkola put on their flared pants and enter a true hi-fi studio. Under the sight of Black Sabbath who watch over the recordings from the wall, “Bacchanale Premiere” is born. Starting off with a swampy introductional sphere with odd noise patterns descending into hypnotic organ lines and gradually dissolving towards a classic Rock Riff, cautious Drums and slightly echoing Vocals. This first track called “Earthrise” serves headbangers in trance or transcendent heads banging?! The next couple of songs have a more upbeat pace and “Tombstone Rider” even offers a certain resemble with Titanic’s unsinkable “My Heart Will Go On” performed by Celine Dion. Vinum Sabbatum found a great balance between each single instrument, while Janne’s voice appears a bit too dominant here and there. The final two tracks “Culdremne” and “Vinum Sabbatum” merge into a fifteen-minute cascade. My favourite by now is “The Devil’s Cradle” which delivers an easygoing lunge flair, well done!
Overall “Bacchanale Premiere” is a pretty cool record, although at some points it seems that the band tried to hard to sound professional – it’s like polishing silver: If you scrub too hard is no longer shines, if you get my drift. Nevertheless Vinum Sabbatum will be able to establish themself even further now. In case you didn’get hooked up at first sight, this album gets better every time you listen to it.
Punkte: 4.5 / 10
