Stam1na…those jolly good fellows from Lemi, Finland are back with their 4th album “Viimeinen Atlantis“. I have always had a very close relation to Stam1na…I remember the first song I heard (well saw cause it was their video and I saw it in Youtube) from them was “Kadonneet Kolme Sanaa” from their debut album Stam1na and it instantly blew me away…for good. We had this phase in Finland around 2005 where we had these weird bands singing in finnish language and some of them was simply pure crap and somehow I categorized Stam1na to them too. What a mistake cause clearly I had no idea what they were about! Well that one single song was enough for me to go and get their album. I thought the cover sucked. But when I started listening the album… well… let’s just say I have been a HUGE fan of Stam1na ever since. Often I have thought what was the thing that I liked them about so much…and I think it was because they seemed to be having a lot of fun and you could hear it from their music. Or maybe it was just me but listening to them made me happy.

Clearly Stam1na changed after their second album “Uudet Kymmenen Käskyä“. I still liked “Raja” very much but it was somehow more serious. Needless to say I got very worried when I started reading about their 4th album “Viimeinen Atlantis” cause the theme wasn’t very uplifting. “Viimeinen Atlantis” is a concept album about the struggle of our planet, how people abuse it without thinking, how consuming, materialism, tv-entertainment has entered our lives deeper and deeper and how eventually our greed, blindness and selfishness will destroy this planet we live in. How can you take a story like that with a smile? It’s easy…you cannot. But what you can do is think…we are all equipped a brain after all right?

What about the album then? It was so weird to start listening to it…it was like for the first few runs you didn’t even pay so much attention on the music…you just listen to the lyrics. And boy that those lyrics are depressive. But then you start putting the pieces together and you realize that in fact the things he sings about, are so true. To me it’s always better when lyrics are about something meaningful…something you can relate to. So lyrically “Viimeinen Atlantis” is mere perfection. How about the songs then? Well after you allow yourself to start paying attention to the actual songs behind the lyrics, you’ll notice that Stam1na continues being a very complex band. You can find thrashmetal, deathmetal and even blackmetal vibes on their songs and all that is combined with a melodic touch. For instance the song “Eloonjäänyt” starts with a blackmetal-like guitar riff and very powerful screaming but once you reach the beautiful chorus there is no trace of blackmetal anymore. Instead you hear a cello?! Very nice. Stam1na turned into a five-piece since they recruited Emil Lähteenmäki as their fulltime member and I must say that having keyboards on the album only adds to what was already very good. There are no weak spots on “Viimeinen Atlantis” album.

Besides…Stam1na did something that not many finnish bands have been able to…they released their “Viimeinen Atlantis”-album on the same week as H.I.M. released their “Screamworks: Love in theory and practise” album and ended up beating H.I.M. in the official charts by debuting as #1 and leaving love metallers as #2.