To be honest I’d never heard of Rauta before, but considering they are a Finnish folk act that sings in Finnish it’s not that strange. Luckily enough I found their myspace which has an English bio about them. The band started to write their first material in 2003 which resulted in their debut album Haudanmaa that’s just been released. Now the million dollar question is how do you review an album that has only lyrics on it which you don’t understand. Well let’s just give it a try.

 

Musically Rauta has several influences; most present are, next to folk, progressive rock and metal. This together results in a great mixture that goes from metal to rock to folk and even some jazz sometimes. Especially songs like ‘Liian Kaukana’, ‘Veren Perintö’ and ‘Morsian Pukeutuu Keltaiseen’ give a special feeling with great compositions and variety of instruments.

 

Lyrically it’s of course not easy to follow but thanks to the great crystal clear production that gave every instrument some space to breath most of the vocals are good to hear. Following the bio that is on their myspace the lyrics handle subjects with a certain criticism against progress and the decadence of the western society, on the other hand they lean heavily on longing for nature, which is something that comes back very often in the Finnish folklore.

 

After listening to this album I’m not quite sure where I stand, music wise it’s a great album with beautiful compositions. But on the other hand I don’t know shit about what they're singing. So it’s more a lack of knowledge of the Finnish language that my final score could be interpreted wrong.