Time Of Despair

Entwine is a cool band from Finland playing deep, depressive Finnish dark metal. What a cliché ! There are countless numerous Finnish bands playing depressive metal in Finland. How come is that ? Is Finland a boring country to live in ? I don't think it is, even though I have never been there myself, but all the Finnish women I have talked to were all shining happy people, and none of them has never told me anything about being depressive… so what should I believe ? That only guys are depressive in Finland ? That Finnish women are happy to live with depressive guys ? Can someone help me out ?

Time Of Despair is Entwine's third release. One thing you have to do when you want to start a new review is to listen to the band's previous releases to focus on the band's evolution (if there is some evolution of course). Here with Entwine there is very little evolution and that is just great because their sophomore album Gone was excellent. This one, believe me, is even better. This may be compared with Paradise Lost's evolution between Icon and Draconian Times. No real evolution, but a better album (I am not comparing the music of Entwine with Paradise Lost, don't take me wrong). Let's hope the band's next release will not be something as shitty as One Second.

Again they recorded at the Astia A-Studio with Anssi Kippo and mastered at Finnvox. They have hired a second guitar player since their last release. That's excellent, because I hate bands who have only one guitar player, especially when I can see them on stage. Besides, having a second guitar player, especially for this release, gives more texture and more warmth to the songs. The fine use of the keyboards and the excellent choruses have also a great deal to do with it. Like I said before, the music hasn't really changed since their last release, but the band's strength is to come up with better dark and poppy melodies coupled with the melancholic kind of atmosphere that was already present on their last album. The cold, sweet voice of Mika Tauriainen fits perfectly the musical orientation of the band. Not to mention the beautiful female voice on the song Until The End. I wish the girl was singing on more songs.

PS : the Century Media edition features only nine songs, but the Spinefarm release has two more songs… that really pisses me off ! Better order your copy at Spinefarm…