Tarot - Suffer Our Pleasures 4/5

01. I Rule 3:49 02. Pyre of Gods 4:33 03. Rider of the Last Day 6:47 04. Follow the Blind 4:33 05. Undead Son 4:04 06. Of Time and Dust 5:55 07. From the Void 5:01 08. Convulsions 4:45 09. From the Shadows 4:19 10. Painless 4:11

Tarot will be familiar to most people as Marco Hietala’s “other” band. They have however been on the scene for quite some time, and had been together for almost 20 years by the time Marco joined Nightwish; indeed, Tarot’s debut album came out a full decade before Nightwish were even formed. However, much of this time has been spent on hiatus, and it was only the success of Hietala joining Nightwish in 2002 which led Spinefarm to commission a new Tarot album in 2003.

Anyone expecting that album, Suffer Our Pleasures, to echo the style of Century Child, Hietala’s first appearance on record with Nightwish, was in for a surprise. While the latter outfit are undoubtedly symphonic power metal, Tarot sit more comfortably in the straight-up heavy-metal vein of Grand Magus, or perhaps Corrosion of Conformity. What’s immediately evident is the rawness of the sound, with Zachary Hietala’s guitars dominating right from the start. From opening track “I Rule” he tears into a meaty selection of convincing riffs and wailing solos, and doesn’t let up until the final power-chord fades. His brother’s vocals manage to achieve a harsh edge, almost a snarl, despite remaining tuneful throughout and even reaching for the odd high-note, and this fits the overall tone of the album. You get the feeling on most of the songs that Tarot are quite angry about something, and that their bassy, growling music is some form of catharsis. It injects a vital hint of emotion into proceedings, without which the album could perhaps have started to appear formulaic.

It really is all about the guitars and vocals here. Janne Tolsa’s keyboards sit quite low in the mix throughout, taking on an almost unobtrusive role when he’s not embarking on a rare solo or leading the melody. Production emphasis throughout is on the tone of the guitar, which is much thicker and more robust than that of the keyboard, and this contributes further to the rough-edged rawness of the album’s sound. Even on tracks like “Pyre of Gods” or single “Undead Son“, which start off led by the keyboards, they’re eventually forgotten, lost in the harsh tones of the guitars and vocals. Being a keyboard player myself, I spent ages fiddling with the equaliser settings, trying to get a better keyboard tone out of this album, to no avail. I was hence surprised to learn that Tolsa himself co-produced the album with Marco, as well as co-writing all of the songs; this leads me to conclude that it’s simply the style and sound they were going for, and to be fair, they’ve nailed it. Every song is convincing, from the driving rock of “I Rule” to the anthemic “From the Void” and the power-ballad-esque “Of Time And Dust”.

It’s true that there’s nothing particularly original, edgy or innovative about Suffer Our Pleasures. It’s also true that there isn’t a great deal of variation in its 10 songs, all of which tread roughly the same path, with only the epic “Rider Of The Last Day“ playing with the format a little; a cynical mind could almost accuse the band of playing it safe. But hey, it’s heavy metal! It doesn’t HAVE to challenge you, break new ground, or make you think. All it has to do is rock; and Suffer Our Pleasures does indeed rock, hard.

Suffer Our Pleasures is available to buy or download at play.com

Genre : Heavy Metal

Article by Phil Sim