by Chris Pavey

Created on: September 14, 2007

Is there a distinct lack of good new music on the radio at the moment? Or is it just me? Well, in Australia at least, the radio stations are an embarrassment of jaded sameness and safeness. It was to my pleasant surprise that by joining Myspace (not all that long ago) I opened myself up to a world of underground music, where my old favorite bands, Korn, Deftones, Smashing Pumpkins, Guns and Roses and the like, still had a voice, and still were creating good quality music that was being heard and purchased by thousands of fans, and where new struggling, but unique, bands were creating exciting music worthy of being listened to. One such band is the Finnish rock/metal band, Morian.

Morian tracked me down with a friend request via Myspace. So I had a listen to their music, and I liked it! Their style is heavy, perhaps a bit like a male version of Evanescence, mixed in with a bit of old school Faith No More and a dash of Metallica. Their lyrics are English and easily relatable to a western audience, and their debut album, Sentinels of the Sun, is a rocking good listen, and well worth being purchased.

Sentinels begins with the track, Firewalker, which is laced with strings, a heavy bass, and an almost operatic style deep booming voice from the lead vocal, Janne Siekkinen. I always gravitate towards an album that feels like an album, not a mixture of songs thrown together in a hasty attempt to remove just that little bit more from you of your hard earned money than a single would have. Unfortunately, this is the case far too often with albums being produced recently (and is even the case from some of my favorite bands like Smashing Pumpkins with their new CD as an example). But, Sentinels is an album, and is an album that is complete within itself. It falls together like a well made bed; a collection of superbly crafted songs that blend into one another in a well mixed journey of thrash, melody, anger, regret, and love. The second song on Sentinels, The Legion of Two, is a fast paced follow up to Firewalkers that has a bit of synthesizer thrown in the background that creates a uniquely euro-metal sound for Morian that pervades the entire CD.

Legion's deeper, faster base, and great lyrics and voice from Janne provides a perfect build up to the ballad style melodic single, Away from the Sun. This song is the first single from Sentinels, and deservedly so, with its beautiful lyrics about the regret of becoming old and looking back on life. It has a soulful sound to it,

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