TRUSTIES - review added 15th January 2010
Album Review: Human Wheel (2009)
For fans of: Prog Rock... and variances in quality
Finnish progressive rock band Trusties is Matti Ylilauri on vocals and percussion, Oikku on guitars, vocals and keyboards, Janne Ervelius on drums, Suti on guitars, and Ville Veijaleinen on bass, vocals and keyboards.
I'm really not sure what to make of latest album Human Wheel, the band's 3rd release. Moments of it are great - for instance parts of the mellow 'Free Fall' - but other sections are a complete turn-off and really make me want to skip tracks. I may not be a prog connoisseur, and perhaps if you are you'll get more out of this than me, but a lot of the album simply isn't that interesting.
There are numerous standard-fare progressive references in the music, plus slabs of freeform jazz, System Of A Down lyrical jaunts and more. The end result is often complex but seldom enjoyable. The lead vocals don't do a lot for me either.
When the music comes together on Human Wheel it's actually pretty decent. However, the album spends too much time spreading itself thinly over the middle ground. The end result isn't awful but it is deeply unsatisfying. As mentioned, if you are obsessively into progressive meanderings of the inaccessible kind, you might find something to like here.
Check out... Hmmm...
Track List:
01. Radiobeings
02. Autopilot
03. Free Fall
04. Rituals & Routines
05. Human Wheel
06. When Sense Meets Its Maker
07. Them Or Us
08. Djemoniee
09. Is This The Last Round?
10. You Can Only Lose
11. Endless Run
12. Reinvention of the Wheel
Artist's website(s): Trusties , MySpace
