Fifth disc of this band led by Ruoja, also known by the name their parents gave him, Pasi, and by an unmistakeable surname, Koskinen. Ruoja abandoned Amorphis in 2005 to be centered in his darkest musical registers and dedicate more time to Ajattara. Also with this statement declaration, lots of his fans had opened their eyes long ago seeing that Ajattara was a completely static group, speaking about evolution and composition, and that no matter how much dedication Ruoja gave the band, this would stay always the same.
And that’s right, “Kalmanto” is a disc equal to all the other brought out by the band. Ruoja seems a character that, saying it in a polite way, doesn’t pays much attention to external opinions, and maybe that’s one of the facts that make this group great. Ajattara, from their beginnings, has been a band with a very specific sound and characteristics. Their dark and oppressive atmospheres, between Doom and Black Metal, Ruoja’s peculiar and virtuous vocal skills and the really right synthesizers’ incursions, are the key elements that have forged this band’s identity from the very beginning. All these musical ingredients together with the inexistent evolution of the group, make that the nuances between discs acquire a vital importance, and it have to be admitted that Ajattara are masters in the world of nuances.
So, “Kalmanto” is a perfectly lawful son of the band, that maybe will tire most of the band’s old fans, but that also has a lot to offer to anybody that knows how to appreciate and deepen in the tortuous musical world created by Ajattara.

Ivan Cateura
Translation: Verni