LIVE REPORT: Where’s My Bible & Lost in Grey
“Odyssey into the Grey” Album Release Show
Hyvinkääsali, Hyvinkää; April 6th, 2024
With the release of “Odyssey into the Grey” on April 5th, Lost in Grey had a fresh and fantastic new album to celebrate, so what better way to do so than to take over their hometown’s music hall, Hyvinkääsali, on April 6th, 2024, for the album release show? In order to make a proper celebration out of the event, they brought Where’s My Bible with them to warm up the stage. This made for an unusual and exciting evening of diverse and intense music!
The show was opened by Where’s My Bible, which meant that Teppo Ristola was working double duty that night, as he plays drums in both bands, which, of course, is surely the reason they had a more extreme-sounding band as their opener despite them not being remotely extreme themselves. I do admit that part of the fun on this night was that I had brought a friend with me who has only a very passing interest in music and knows very little about metal music/bands, so I was as interested in how he’d like the shows as I was in the shows themselves.
First of all, Where’s My Bible are just great. I spent a lot of the show trying to figure out what it is exactly that I like so much about them. For one, most of their songs are still very melodic, which is a huge contributor. I don’t enjoy massive walls of crushing sound that last forever, so the things that make metal black or extreme (like blast-beats) are fine for me but only in extremely small amounts. With WMB, everything seems to be in constant motion, so all of those harsh and heavy moments do happen, and they happen a lot, but they move on and evolve—Jussi Matilainen can shriek and growl and go gutteral… nothing gets stagnant, nothing feels same-y or boring. The same goes for the backing vocals and instruments—the texture between the clean backing vocals and Jussi’s various different growls is endlessly intriguing. Furthermore, they also have these wonderful old folk instruments once in a while to add a hint of extra flavor into their sound, for even more diversity. The music hall setting was surprisingly good for them, they managed to fill the large space quite well, and overall I enjoyed their set once again. My friend also enjoyed himself, appreciating how heavy and diverse it was.
Because the show was hosted at Hyvinkääsali, I was delighted to see that the venue still had a service going, with their little sweet and salty cakes, bubblies, and limited bar selection, so people could have something to eat and drink between sets. I was also very impressed with their merch set-up! I’ve sold shirts there myself and know that it’s tricky to get shirts anywhere there because it’s hard to hang things on window panes.
When it came time for Lost in Grey to take the stage, I got pretty excited to hear the first few notes of “The Entourage” playing—it’s a really brilliant song to start both an album and a show with, as it’s very scene-setting and bombastic. Unfortunately, some murkiness in the sound quality that had been present during Where’s My Bible’s set was still present in their set as well: the backing track and drums were the loudest, followed by the guitars, bass, and Emily Leone’s voice, and the quietest were the keyboards, violin, and Anne Lil Rajala and Harri Koskela’s vocals. This was the biggest bummer of the otherwise awesome show, because their music is so big and full of nuance that even my friend had asked, “do these shows always sound this mushy/unclear?” It would have really benefited from a much more clear and cohesive mix.
Now that said, I also particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of this show, regardless of the overall sound quality. Like WMB before them, they had no trouble filling the large music hall stage and I love the general look, with their outfits and make-up, the whole package! This was, apparently, the first time that Anne has not been wearing her Lilian tutu on stage, which some might mourn but I loved her new outfit so much that I was not bothered in the least.
The set had a nice balance between old and new material, though I admit that I would have wanted a few more of their new tracks (though, what can you do when many of your songs are so very long?). From their older albums, we got to hear “The Waste Land,” “Dark Skies,” “Disobedience,” “Wolves Among Men,” “Waves,” and “Far Beyond and Further,” with new material including “Vek Kan Segla Förtum Vind,” “Hailuoto,” “The Bottomless Pit,” and of course, the title track, “Odyssey into the Grey,” which was wonderful to have near the end of the set for the same reason that it was awesome to have “The Entourage” up first.
Some of the general highlights included things like Anne Lil Rajala’s vocals… I recall not being the biggest fan of her voice on the first two albums back when they came out, but loving her stage presence and personality; nowadays I feel like everything is up to the same level—she’s an awesome singer! I also loved an ominous moment for Harri Koskela during “Wolves Among Men” where he got some spotlight and sounded really… unsettling and ominous. Also, any time Emily Leone was swapping between violins and vocals… she’s a very impressive talent, what with the classical training. And then, let’s just shout out all of the musicians, yes? LiG are, after all, a seven-piece band and Anne is the only vocalist who’s not also on an instrument. The sheer level of talent that these guys have on display is just out of this world! Finally, “The Bottomless Pit” was another live highlight, just because of the way they wrote the vocal lines and how they trade off, which really invokes a similar feeling to “The Carol of the Bells.”
Now, at some point I was checking my clock because I realized that I wasn’t sure how many songs they had played due to the smooth transitions between them, thinking they had only played about five songs so far. Lo and behold, an hour had already passed! I’m not used to metal shows going by quickly for me, frankly, so that was a genuine shock—I was really having a great time! During the encore, they asked for some requests, while the crowd shouted things like “Paranoid.” I was hoping to convince them to play “Two Wolves,” but alas, no luck (this was one of my favorites from the album), as what they actually played was “Far Beyond and Further,” though I’m not complaining because that song is also an awesome composition. As it wrapped up, my friend praised the long length of songs and heavy classical influence on the music overall (and he’s absolutely right).
Ultimately, this was a brilliant night of excellent performances, marred only by the wonky sound balance. Even though the two bands don’t have a lot in common musically (besides their drummer, of course), it does seem that they are both jam-packed with quality ambience, atmosphere, and skill! I noted a lot of friends and family present as well. I really hope to see them again sometime soon, hopefully touring this amazing album!
Setlist
The Entourage
The Waste Land
Dark Skies
Disobedience
Wolves Among Men
Waves
Vek Kan Segla Förtum Vind
Hailuoto
The Bottomless Pit
Odyssey into the Grey
Far Beyond and Further
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