Band:	Waltari
Album:	Rare Species
Style:	Alternative metal, Avantgarde metal, Progressive thrash metal
Release date:	March 01, 2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. One Day
02. Life without Love
03. Megacity Rain
04. Dreamworld
05. What I Really Know
06. My Pain
07. Quick as A Day
08. Dream
09. Alone
10. Live This!
11. Wasting My Mind
12. No Limit/Your Funky Rhythm /Symphony Of Destruction
13. Guardian Angel [Limited edition bonus]
14. Living Then Living Now [Limited edition bonus]
15. New Church [Limited edition bonus]
16. There's No Tomorrow [Limited edition bonus]

Waltari is one of those bands that started playing Metal back in the mid eighties and then moved to softer terrains, the Finnish band has a well earned reputation in his country and their members have passed through many bands like Sinergy, Children Of Bodom and Kreator. The Cd I'm holding in my hands could be described as progressive commercial Gothic Rock. Yep, that's it.

Maybe you got the wrong impression with my first description of the band, but fear not, because whether you like their style I must say this album is great!
Album starts with a catchy tune "One Day" perfect for your non-metal friends, really commercial, fun to listen and really light, no complications here, next is "Life without Love" things get lighter here, this song has a lot of electronic samples, vocal effects and moral value (just look at the title) nevertheless, again really catchy.

"Megacity Ruin" has even more electro samples and vocal effects, but to counter has some heavy riffs, maybe reminder of their thrash era. "Dreamworld" is another "hit" in the album, great song with excellent arrangements, simple but catchy. "What I Really Know" is a playful song, has great rhythm and hooks all over, "My Pain" is a boring song with some rapped part while Quick As A Day" is another uninteresting song with some eighties reminisces (rapped vocals, drums, keyboards).

"Dream" is another eighties song with a Catchy keyboard again, "Alone" begins with some electro loops and then the guitars comes in, at the end you have this Electro-Metal song, which was quite entertaining, but things don't stop here because Electro-Metal follows in "Live This!" another good sample of Metal riffing with those Untz untz untz of electronic music. Almost closing the album "Wasting My Time" return the pace to the usual Gothic Rock. As closer track the band have a surprise for us, is cover time, and what a cover, imagine that horrible song "No Limit" by 2 Unlimited paired with "Symphony Of Destruction" by Megadeth, interesting experiment it is, and at the end quite enjoyable.

At the end we have a album that will not suit all Metalheads worldwide, but a crowd with an open mind yes. Excellent record to put on while your non-Metal friends are at home, enjoying, original and eve danceable, that's what I call I good album.