The name Waltari meant absolutely nothing to me prior to 2001, when their guitarist Sami Yli-Sirnio joined the ranks of Kreator, and helped them release the amazing album Violent Revolution. Sami's unique style and sound made a huge impression on me, and made me promise myself to check out his other band at the first given opportunity.

Well, even though this Finnish outfit has been around since 1986, getting your hands on one of their older releases was proven to be quite a difficult task - one that I soon gave up on. Months went by and I started to forget all about Waltari, until the day when the guys from Dockyard 1 decided to send me a promo of the band's latest effort "Blood Sample".

With the colourful guitar melodies of "Violent Revolution" still fresh in my mind, I threw the promo in my CD player and sat comfortably on my couch, and even though I was prepared to listen to something much different than Kreator's trademark riffs and melodies, Waltari's music took me totally by surprise!

Why? If you write a list with all the different styles of music that you know, you have many chances of finding such elements in "Blood Sample", and I am being really serious in saying that.

One of the most characteristic things about Waltari is the voice of their founding member Kartsy Hatakka, whose style will be important in deciding whether you will invest or not in the music of this unusual band. As an album, "Blood Sample" is quite varied and capable of creating a variety of emotions. Songs like "Helsinki" and "Never", with their nice gothy atmosphere and unbelievably catchy riffs, managed to win me over in no time, whereas the Grindcore-sounding "melodies" of "Extermination Warheads" and the silly themes of "New York" almost made me toss the CD (together with my HI-FI equipment) out of the window.

One song that definitely must be checked out, due to its numerous and quite interesting experimentations, is "Digging Inside", and there is also a quite attractive cover of Julia (The Beatles) which serves as a very tasty desert.

Listening to "Blood Sample" has indeed been a very interesting experience. Does this mean that I am now a converted Waltari fan? Well, not really, but it is always good to come across bands with such an interesting approach and attitude towards music. I am sure that this seventeen track release will not come as a surprise to the band's loyal fans, but the rest of you should definitely give this album a few spins before you decide whether you wish to invest in it or not.

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Review by John Stefanis