Nordic arena proggers glow with righteous ire on album number eight.
Finland’s premier progressive siblings continue to walk a tightrope that’s familiar to ambitious art-rock acts the world over: your core audience loves you for the long-form, not always radiofriendly work they first latched on to; but as artists, you don’t want to keep repeating that formula, and you wouldn’t mind attracting the attention of a few fans from outside the prog ghetto.
On recent albums, Von Hertzen Brothers have succeeded skilfully with that balancing act, interspersing their multipart, 10-minute-plus suites with a few snappier, arena-friendly anthems. And, perhaps just as importantly, they’ve retained a thoughtful lyrical substance, whether in the wanderlust themes of 2015’s New Day Rising or 2017’s not-quiteas-simplistic-as-it-sounds War Is Over.
This eighth studio album is perhaps their most thematically focused yet, the title referring to concern over the neglect and wanton destruction of nature, inspired by the Von Hertzens’ rural upbringing. Initially, they address the matter with a righteous urgency, as builds from an eerie lament rich with bewitching multi-part vocal harmonies into a wind-in-the-hair gallop of an anthem, verging on the sturm und drang of power
