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Alex Keskitalo :
vocals, flute
Jaakko Kettunen :
guitars
Janne Pylkkönen :
bass
Tarmo Simonen :
piano, synth
Markus Wallasvaara
: drums, percussion
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Most of the time
upcoming bands who offer something outstanding are welcomed with
open arms by the entire prog community. As a result everyone and I
mean EVERYONE knows about this band resulting in healthy sales. Only
rarely this doesn’t happen which is a shame for all concerned. One
of these exceptions is rumoured to be the Finish band Overhead. The
seeds for this band were planted in september ’99 and since april
2000 they are the quintet which delivered this little masterpiece in
2001. Before the arrival of their singer, the nucleus of four
friends who all study at the University of Technology in Helsinki,
recorded the self-produced album “The snowman album”. Sadly this
album was never officially released. New material was written and
although still very melodic they are more about expressing the
strong feelings of the human mind and strong atmospheres.
Some might compare
the band’s material with Camel but there’s more to the Overhead
compositions than just Camel. Inspired by diverse acts such as King
Crimson, Rush, ELP, Dream Theater, Deep Purple but also Elton John,
Tori Amos, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, it illustrates that this band
isn’t afraid to broaden it’s horizons. Such is the first track on
their debut album ‘Beginning to end’ a 20’ epic in which plenty of
different styles mingle, all nicely balanced so that guitar and
piano can be heard in detail without going into overdrive. The main
melody makes me think of Polish band SBB whilst Alex Keskitalo’s
voice contains a slight hint of ... Devil Doll’s Mr. Doctor ! The
way the band changes rhythms and atmospheres is quite ingenious and
unheard of for such young musicians. The only minus I can find might
be the immature way of singing in certain parts. For the rest great
musicianship from everyone involved with even a bit of Anekdoten
flavour present during ‘Asleep pt. 2’ which also contains some
psychedelic “Obscured by clouds”-era guitar. The intro for
‘Confessions of the Grim Reaper’ would sound great on stick but they
probably need an outside producer to tell them. Here Alex sounds
like Stef Kamil Carlens from Belgian band Zita Swoon whilst the
arrangement begs for lush symphonic strings. However they are able
to once again change the atmosphere of the song into a rocking
experience.
Much
more solemn is the instrumental ‘Wasteland’ which once again
contains some interesting moves and sounds. If only the
keyboardplayer could have access to better instruments I’m convinced
the endresult could be so much better. The titletrack contains some
Zeppelin chords and illustrates for the upteenth time the potential
of this band but in the end I’m not that euphoric about this album
as it still contains a lot of naïveté. For sure an outside producer
could do miracles here and above all these guys should be given
better equipment, instruments that are capable of much more than the
restricted material they are given now. Also the vocalist should
listen to his recordings plenty of times before being 100% pleased.
As a start however “Zumanthum” delivers an interesting album with
enough credit to go on. In the end they might even become the Pain
of Salvation of symphonic rock. But all I can give Overhead as
advice is : don’t be too satisfied too soon ! |
