A Review of 'Duumipeikon paluu' by Aldo Quispel of Doom-metal.com

I wish to take this spot to apologise to both the visitors of doom-metal.com and the band members of Aarni. I have written and deleted more than 5 failed reviews this album. I am afraid I can not possibly write a readable review about it. Which is a true shame because all I wish to do at this moment is rave and rant about this great Finnish band.

Unfortunately Aarni's music is too complex (yet often childishly simplistic) to describe. Every time I try, I end up creating unreadable garbage by knitting various terms together. And even then I don't even scratch the surface of how this band really sounds. I end up with odd descriptions like 'mix Skepticism and Deinonychus with Folk and Prog rock'. And when I mentioned that their influences go from Finnish Folklore, Paganism and the occult to Parapsychology and psychoanalysis, to Lovecraft and Mythology, even I get lost in what I was trying to say. Mentioning that the band say they often get described as, 'almost orthodox doom metallish Lovecraftian-Jungian Kalevala avant-garde music', probably also does not help. Equally when I go into how their lyrics are in Finnish, French, Latin, English, Swedish and even Ancient Egyptian; there just is too much information to mention!

Every time I try to describe this music I simply get lost in the quicksand of despair that is Aarni. They offer too much in their music for me to ever be able to review them, yet they often sound almost childishly simplistic. Where I keep failing to organise and categorise the different styles or create a coherent review, Aarni succeed at this musically. Their music never overwhelms you, but always surprises you. Expect the unexpected, expect heavy funeral doom, expect experimentation, expect gentle open progressive sections, expect mesmerising dreamscapes, expect to drift away, expect songs that aren't songs, expect a medieval feel, expect a futuristic feel, expect simple tunes, expect complexity, expect, well...anything!

As such, while this is probably the best album I've heard in a long time, I can not review it. It is haunting, doomy, bleak, heavy, oppressive and soul crushing. But it can also be mellow, uplifting and have a childish innocence about it. Once more Finland proves to be the ultimate breeding ground for talented Doom-metal acts. My apologies to Aarni for not being able to write a coherent review of their demo and that I will never be able to let the world know about this great act!

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