This band was founded by the Hietala brothers — who would have thought! — way back in 1985, during the reign of such heavy and power metal emperors as ACCEPT, JUDAS PRIEST, and AC/DC. The ideas of these giants permeate all of the Finns' albums, but the typical accusations of plagiarism and cloning leveled at younger bands are somewhat out of place here, given the band's 23-year track record (who knows who borrowed from whom!).
In the 1980s, no one could even imagine metal coming from Finland, but with the emergence in the early '90s of bands like AMORPHIS and SENTENCED, Finland became known to fans of doom and death metal worldwide — though that still wasn't heavy metal. The popularity of the latter exploded in the country after the mid-'90s appearance of NIGHTWISH and CHILDREN OF BODOM, which triggered a worldwide proliferation of clones. In 2002, the ranks of NIGHTWISH were bolstered by one of TAROT's founders — Marco Hietala, who took on the role of bassist and additional vocalist. This became the catalyst for reviving Marco's half-forgotten project — in 2003, TAROT released "Suffer Our Pleasures" and, riding the wave of NIGHTWISH's success, finally gained their long-awaited recognition. In 2006, reissues of all the band's studio albums appeared with bonus tracks, along with a contract with major label Nuclear Blast. The Finns' latest album, "Crows Fly Black," was released on this label this year.
The first thing that catches your eye is the cover and booklet artwork, executed in somber blue-black tones. On the cover, amidst the clouds, dangle figures of some human beings, each suspended by a cord with one end wrapped around the neck and the other disappearing somewhere upward. One might want to suggest this implies a reference to puppet-people whose strings of fate are in the hands of a divine puppeteer. But what kind of puppets are these when the "string of fate" is just one — and it's wrapped around the neck! I think only the artist knows the truth... Inside the booklet, more original touches await — the main character of the artwork appears on the pages four more times, with each appearance increasingly enlarged. And on the last page, we see the eyeball of this unknown character, around which — against the backdrop of the iris — circle... that's right! Those very black crows mentioned in the album's title!
Now, as for the music. The band's style remains the same hard and heavy metal in the finest classical traditions of ACCEPT and JUDAS PRIEST (just take the songs "Traitor" and "Messenger of Gods"), but with a modern, fresh sound. The overall atmosphere has become darker and more oppressive compared to its predecessor, which is also thanks to Marco as a vocalist, whose dark, raspy-shrieky voice with its hysterical edge stirs the blood and makes you flinch more than once. It's no wonder TAROT's name appears among the contributors to the soundtrack of the well-known Finnish horror film V2.
An excellent album, a shining example of the genre. Personally, I would have liked more varied choruses, as most are built on the principle of repeating the song title with a few additional phrases tacked on. But the magnificent solos in every track, performed by the vocalist's brother Zachary Hietala, make you forget about this shortcoming.
P.S. A pleasant surprise in the form of a multimedia section with a media player and a bonus 11th track awaits buyers of the russian edition. And even more pleasant is the fact that the song is quite good indeed.