Poets Of The Fall
Twilight Theater

From the cold Finland, the rock of the 'poets of the fall'. Starting to gain recognition in 2006 among the Scandinavian audience with the single "Carnival Of Rust" that beat a much more 'heavyweight' figure like Mr. Lordi at the EMA's, Poets Of The Fall, led by Marko Saaresto, returned in 2010 with "Twilight Theater".

The first notes to highlight are fundamentally two: POTF is a band that strongly recalls melancholic pop/rock background music, to be clear, a bit Coldplay and a bit HIM (with whom they share their country of origin) but with one difference, the label they belong to, Insomniac, being independent, has a modest level of influence, and this has certainly negatively affected the band's rise. On the other hand, one of the group's peculiarities is making themselves known through not quite conventional means, at least not to most people, with "Twilight Theater" indeed repeating for the second time a process of advertising through video games, as already happened in the past with the song "Late Goodbye" sponsored through the game "Max Payne 2", our guys see their relationship with the gaming world strengthened through tracks like "War" and "Dreaming Wide Awake". Both songs, personally the best on the album, serve as both soundtracks and references to one of the action games of the year for console, "Alan Wake" also born and developed in Finland, and this has brought the music of Poets Of The Fall to the masses as perhaps never before.

Returning to the album, the opening is not by chance, with the two pieces already mentioned, natural and melodic, cold but convincing, they pave the way for the piano/rock of "15 Min Flame" and "Given And Denied", also among the most successful tracks. These four songs alone would be enough to conclude that "Twilight Theater" is the band's best album, now well-known in continental Europe (our dear 'bel paese' is, as always, a bit behind), but continuing the listening also positively surprises with acoustic pieces like "Rewind" and "You're Still Here", calm and serene songs like their country of origin. The album closes with the indie touch of "Smoke And Mirrors" and the piano (a slightly repetitive solution) of "Hell My Wounds". Overall, I can state that the negative side of an album with good potential like this is precisely the lack of different solutions, many tracks indeed end up being somewhat similar to each other, flattening what is a good album as a whole, yet the quality of the album is of significant level, listen to believe.

Rating 7