A Review of 'Duumipeikon paluu + Demo 2001' by John McGartoll from Issue 1 of Abandon All Hope fanzine

Aarni are one of the most unusual bands I have heard in a while. Imagine a mix of Solstice, Amorphis, early My Dying Bride and a load of avantgarde madness. That's what Aarni sound like. The tracks here are very varied, from the pastoral opening track 'Myrrys' to the very up-beat and folky 'Lampaan Vaateissa' to the very 'Tales of the Thousand Lakes'-esque 'The Weird of Vipunen' to the total funeral doom of 'Transcend Humanity' and the excellent, almost frightening quasi-instrumental 'Reaching Azathoth' which really captures the atmsphere of being in a dark tunnel face to face with a weird monster. There is a lot of vocal variety too - from normal death grunts, to spoken parts, to strange almost robotic moans. The bonus tracks from Demo 2001 are less interesting, apart from the totally off-the-wall cover of 'Dead Skin Mask'. Overall there is no shortage of ideas and originality here, and a lot of good riffs. However, on a couple of occasions the pastoral, folky elements are too happy and upbeat for my liking, and I fear that future additions of more avantgarde tendencies might put this band beyodn my tastes. Still, definitely a good release and a promising band. The band have now been signed with Firebox, have released a Split CD with Umbra Nihil (containing a lot of the same tracks as this promo) and will release a new album at some stage in the future.

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