The AJATTARA concert in moscow was anticipated — by fans of dark extreme music and by AMORPHIS fans alike, the latter still smarting from the recent departure of Pasi Koskinen from that legendary Finnish band.
Pasi Koskinen is a versatile creative personality. Let us look at the projects in which he has been involved. First — the most celebrated. Pasi joined AMORPHIS in 1995, precisely when the band underwent a dramatic stylistic transformation. Koivusaari's growling gave way to Pasi's clean vocals. Elegy in 1995, Tuonela in 1998, Am Universum in 2000 — from album to album the sound grew lighter. The last of those three was overloaded with electronics and in several compositions resembled dance music. Far From The Sun (2003) was the last AMORPHIS album featuring Pasi — after the tour in support of that album he left the band. New vocalist Tomi Joutsen combines both growling and clean vocals; an interesting side note: Pasi himself left precisely because he wanted to pursue more extreme directions in heavy music. It should be noted that Pasi had always combined his work in AMORPHIS with other projects. The band SHAPE OF DESPAIR was formed in 1995; to date the band has released three full-length albums, the first of which is recognised as one of the finest in the funeral doom genre. A year later the AJATTARA project emerged, in which Pasi is the guitarist, vocalist, lyricist (all the band's lyrics are in Finnish), and composer. Notably, guitarist and AMORPHIS co-founder Tomi Koivusaari also took part in the project and remains a member to this day. The aggressive sound and incredibly dark black-doom soon found its listeners. In 2002 Pasi decided to have some fun, and TO SEPARATE THE FLESH FROM THE BONES emerged — Pasi (here again as guitarist and vocalist) and two companions create in the grindcore genre, with lyrics saturated with gore. To date one album has been released, with a total running time of just over 27 minutes across 25 tracks. Finally, quite recently Pasi became the vocalist of the stoner band MANNHAI and participated in the band's 2005 tour.
So this was Pasi's third visit to russia. Twice he had come as part of AMORPHIS; and by coincidence, the AMORPHIS concert with the new vocalist had taken place exactly two weeks before the AJATTARA concert — meaning Tomi Koivusaari was visiting st. petersburg and moscow for the second time within a month.
The concert was opened by TILARIS. Their performance was genuinely pleasing in terms of sound; the band played a 45-minute set including an AMORPHIS cover. What was absolutely displeasing even at this stage was the behaviour of the audience. There weren't many people, and the number of sober ones diminished with each passing minute. That evening at the Relax — where people normally prefer to drink beer — almost everyone was drinking vodka, and in absolutely immeasurable quantities. Then THE NEVERLAND appeared on stage — to my surprise, the sound that had been excellently tuned became a complete mush: the bass guitar merged with the guitar, the vocals were indistinct. As for the audience — silence is more eloquent here. The atmosphere was simply becoming unpleasant. Around half the people had completely forgotten they had come to a concert rather than a drinking competition. THE NEVERLAND played for around 50 minutes.
After the support bands, the minutes of anticipation began — during which the audience wasted no time and formed a queue at the Relax bar. Finally the band began tuning up. The musicians then appeared on stage; Pasi came out last — stepped to the centre of the stage, raised his hands in silence to greet the audience, took up his guitar, and began to play. Everyone who had not drunk themselves completely senseless grabbed their ears — no one had expected such vile, appalling sound. To top it all off, Pasi began to sing, but was inaudible because the microphone wasn't working — the first song and half of the second passed in this manner. This, however, seemed to concern Mr. Koskinen little, since he was in the same state as the majority of those standing on this side of the stage. The legend of the Finnish metal scene, vocalist and guitarist Pasi Koskinen was, to put it plainly, blind drunk. The band's keyboardist was in an identical state.
Throughout the entire concert — which ran a minute or two short of an hour — Pasi did not say a single word to the audience, with the exception of a few words in Finnish, having managed in the process to spit into the crowd a couple of times (not out of spite, of course — he simply had a poor grasp of where he was), to throw a cigarette butt into the crowd during the encore, and twice during that same encore to nearly topple over with his guitar. However, "near-falls" occurred during the main part of the concert as well, and they were doubly dangerous since the band's keyboardist, as already noted, was in an absolutely identical state.
Now about what the band played. The main set included twelve songs, with a perfect equality between the three albums: four songs from Itse (2001), four from Kuolema (2003), and four from Tihjyys (2004). The encore featured "Ilon Paiva" from the single of the same name (2004).
Honestly, the song selection did not particularly appeal to me; moreover, identifying songs was very difficult — Pasi announced not a single one, and the sound was so terrible that recognising compositions was no easy task.
I will conclude the report here. The one positive impression: TILARIS's performance. As for Mr. Koskinen — being a representative of the Finnish people does not mean one can behave in such a way. It was sheer disrespect for the audience. Perhaps Pasi had confused this with one of his goregrind project appearances and forgotten where he had actually come. The audience's behaviour — drunk to the point of incapacity and completely unable to conduct themselves — left an equally unpleasant impression. Overall, a complete disappointment of a concert.
Report by Alan
Special thanks for the accreditation provided.
Setlist:
1. Verivalta 2. Surman Henki 3. Yhdeksas 4. Sortajan Kaipuu 5. Agras 6. Naaras 7. Tulessa 8. Armon Arvet 9. Katumuksen Kyinen Koura 10. Antakaa Elaa 11. Ikiuossa 12. Haureus
— encore — 13. Ilon Paiva