Tilinteon hetki by Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus [Review]

A new article by our Finnish Correspondent, Suvi Jyrinki

This time I picked up an older album: Tilinteon hetki by Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus, issued in 2004. The band has officially split up in 2006, but the power of their music has still remained.

Timo Rautiainen played with Trio Niskalaukaus in years 1996-2004. Despite the name there was always four or five men, instead of just three, playing along with the singer. This band was one of the first metal bands to perform their songs in Finnish and to be accepted that way. Before them it was almost impossible for us to imagine anyone performing metal in any language except English: it just didn’t seem to be right somehow back in those days. But that’s not all: Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus have also released two albums that featured originally Finnish songs translated into German.
I find this artist very respectable. He doesn´try to be scary or evil: Timo is just being himself. His voice is gentle and powerful and though he has been telling desolate stories of either global or just personal disasters, he sounds like he respected the people these songs are about, instead of just screaming out all the desperation and pain. Those feelings are fluently described by the band and the combination of music and the singer is balanced.

Tilinteon hetki (= moment of reckoning) was their last release and apparently the most popular one according to Spotify. It´s a 2 CD compilation album featuring probably the best known songs and couple of live versions. Three songs of this album stand out for me: Juoksevan veden aika (= time of running water), which includes some cello elements, tells a story of madness and/or being marked as lunatic, Hyvä Päivä (=a good day) in its pacific melancholy leaves me to decide if it´s about absolutely last day on Earth or just a last good one; Kylmä Tila (=cold state) reminds me of all this post punk/gothic stuff I’ve been listening to especially the last couple of years.

Timo Rautiainen had another rock band for a while since Trio Niskalaukaus had disbanded and he of course is still playing music these days, only genre has lately changed from metal to Finnish folk music. According to Timo himself he has been tired of metal and rock now, but in the end, who really knows about the future…

And now some essential words translated:

huijata: cheat, trick, hoax
itku: cry, weep
kevät: spring; kevään virta: stream of spring
koira: dog
lintu: bird
Niskalaukaus: a gunshot into back of the neck
oikeus: justice
rajatila: limit state
rekisterikilpi: vehicle tag; rekisterikilvet vietiin viime torstaina: they took away my vehicle
tags last thursday
samarialainen; laupias olen vaan en samarialainen: I´m good, but not samaritan
työ: work, job; tänään on hyvä päivä viedä loppuun työt: it´s a good day today for finishing your job

Suvi

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