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CMX

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CMX – Talvikuningas

By [iippo]



Review :: Talvikuningas  -by [iippo]

Release: September 5, 2007
Artist: CMX
Album: Talvikuningas
Tracklist:
I     Kaikkivaltias (The All-mighty)
II    Resurssikysymys (Question of Resources)
III    Pretoriaanikyborgit (Pretorian Cyborgs)
IV    Vallan Haamut (Ghosts of Power)
V     Tähtilaivan Kapteeni (Captain of a Starship)
VI    Kosmologisen Vakion Laulu (Song of the Cosmological Constant)
VII    Parvatin Tietäjä (Shaman of Parvati)
VIII   Punainen Komentaja (Red Commander)
IX    Langennut Valo (Fallen Light)
X     Quanta
XI    Rusalkai
XII    Kaikkivaltiaan Peili (The Mirror of the All-Mighty)


Talvikuningas (“Winter King”) is the newest and the 12th long play album by the Finnish progressive rock group CMX (short for Cloaca_Maxima). What makes Talvikuningas an interesting event in the music world (more so than a regular CD-release) is that it is in essence a theme album. Not unlike an opera or a symphony, Talvikuningas is a solid piece of music instead of a well-assembled collection of songs. The tracks have smooth transition from one to another, and they all add to the mood and world of the Winter King, a futuristic fantasy (or a fantastic sci-fi?) world: a bleak world of both interstellar and intrapersonal travel.

The first release is a limited edition of 8000 CDs, each numbered and containing a 40-page libretto with the lyrics and original illustrations. The booklet begins with:
In the year 2727, the good governor Wong Wu-Wei, whose name means “He Who Is Not”, gave his wife a garden as a dower. The garden fitted inside the nail of her little finger. The governor had had the garden built with rippling streams, arching bridges and stunning waterfalls, he had planted countless flowering trees, and built a thousand mechanical birds to habit the branches of the trees. Each one of the birds could sing – in several different languages – parts of the Saga of the Winter King.

As a group, CMX is a really well-established company with a solid fan base in Finland. They are in the stage of their career where they seem to enjoy unlimited artistic freedom – much like the Beatles did when making Sgt. Pepper or the White Album – and it is often that time when legendary albums are made, and Talvikuningas has all that would make it legendary.

It seems odd to me that CMX is not going abroad – bands such as HIM, Nightwish, Children of Bodom et al, and the Eurovision victory of Lordi all prove that there is room for Finnish heavy rock in the international music world. Of course the difference between CMX and the exported bands is that – due to Yrjänä’s poetics – CMX songs are all in Finnish. Yet I don’t see why that would be a valid reason to keep the band under a bushel: for example, Rammstein sings in German, and they have a huge fan-following in non-German speaking countries too. And while there are several Finnish groups whose lyrics far supersede the melody they are sung to, I’d imagine Yrjänä’s deep and expressive voice to be a treat for the ears even if the expression and depth of his words do not reach the listener due to the language barrier.

You can watch a video of track 8, Punainen Komentaja (Red Commander) here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wMdf5Pv4aVs



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