After wrestling with the future of the planet on their grandiose epic 2022 album Red Alert In The Blue Forest, stalwart Finnish prog rockers Von Hertzen Brothers have taken a step back for their ninth album.
The music is as big and widescreen as ever, propelled by fierce drums that are higher in the mix than before, but lyrically they’ve gone back to focusing more on details and their implications.
The key track is the relatively short, musically skittish and unusual Starlings, which provides the album’s title and describes the changing shapes the flocks of birds make as they fly in close proximity, making humans seem clumsy in comparison. A couple of tracks later they’re gazing up at the heavens in awe – and unease.
Things get a bit darker as the album progresses, but there’s an acceptance that generally blows away the gloom with tidal waves of sound and those immaculate vocal harmonies
