Bjørkø
Heartrot – Svart Records
It’s taken Amorphis guitarist Tomi Koivusaari quite a while to get his solo project from an idea to finished article. Heartrot has been 15 years in the making. You can sense that this has been a labour of love from first note until last. Lauri Porra (bass), Waltteri Väyrynen (drums) and Janne Lounatvuori (synths and keyboards) were recruited from his circle of notable musician friends. Half of the lyrics are written by former Abhorrence bandmate Jussi “Juice” Ahlroth. The rest by a series of guest vocalists. But what about the music? That ranges from deathly thanks to Carcass frontman Jeff Walker on the mic, to symphonic courtesy of Marco Hietala (Nightwish). Solo works often suffer from delusions of grandeur. Koivusaari has avoided this pitfall by allowing every other contributor to shine. The result is an album that is a wonderful listen right through with moments that are breath taking. Let’s all hope it doesn’t take another 15 years for a follow up.
Review by Gary Trueman