Rantama - Rantama Review (2020)

Genre(s): Progressive Rock, Math Rock

Recommended Tracks: Roaring Rapids, Dying Star, A Small Blink of Light

Label: Independent

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Review: Despite being labelled as heavy-prog by the Prog-Archives, the guitar work on this record is quite math rock leaning while the vocals lend some pop/crossover appeal to the music. The album starts off mighty strong with smooth guitar licks and lush chords. The vocalist is confident and delivers on the hooks and choruses. As an avid fan of modern progressive metal and the djent movement, this is an album that can definitely scratch that itch for a softer sound without compromising on that jazzy ambience characteristic of some modern prog metal.

The knock, and it’s a big one, is the album’s monotony. The guitar is mixed to sit comfortably soft behind center, never quite jumping out and delivering on the big emotional climaxes suggested by the music. The result is 8 tracks that all kind of blur into one another. As already mentioned, this makes for a good start but also turns the latter half of the album into a chore.

Aside from a poorly written Spotify biography (I get it, they’re Finnish musicians, not American marketing associates at a record label), there ain’t all that much info on this band out on the web making it difficult to get any context on the musicians and their band. But hey, this just leaves more room for the music to do the talking.