VELVET THUNDER

Fairly fun to form a Finnish female-fronted rock band under the Frontiers Music label! Ginger Evil release their debut album The Way It Burns in February, and it’s fairly full-on! But enough of my alliterative silliness, and on with their story: Ginger Evil began as Moonshine Inc. in 2005, in a rehearsal room in Helsinki, Finland, but according to guitarist Tomi Julkunen, although the founder members had written and rehearsing some very promising material, they still hadn’t found a singer to properly deliver their songs, so things rather got put on ice (In Finland? – their pun, not mine!). Meanwhile, Tomi and bassist Veli Palevaara continued gigging around Finland with The Milestones (including some pretty impressive arena shows with Deep Purple and Whitesnake!). In the aftermath of The Milestones’ fifth album, however, those old Moonshine Inc. songs from a decade back proved to be an itch that still needed scratching, so the search for a suitable vocalist was on again.

Ella Tepponen was known to Tomi and Veli from many theatre and music projects, and they eventually realised her powerful voice was what they might have been looking for. Drummer Toni Mustonen was already familiar to everyone, and those missing pieces of the jigsaw finally fell into place, some extended jamming sessions proving they were all on the same wavelength. Ginger Evil was born.

They describe themselves as liking everything “From Foo Fighters to Fleetwood Mac” (oh dear, here we go again….) but to be serious, singer Ella brings that whole new dimension to the band’s signature rock vibes. Everything was coming together nicely, including music producer and film director Richard Stanley (known for his work with The Who) who heard demos of Ginger Evil and was inspired to supply some lyrics! For this, their debut album, Ella was able to rope in Teemu Aalto (Insomnium) as producer, who also handled the final mixes with final mastering by Grammy-nominated Svante Forsbäck of Chartmakers (Rammstein, Volbeat, Sunrise Avenue, Apocalyptica). The result is well worth a spin!  

The album opens with Rainmaker, a nicely full sound featuring the mighty Ella doing a more-than-pretty-decent impression of Pat Benatar over an insidious chord progression. It’s not hugely innovative but it is very well produced and easy on these rock-attuned lobes of mine. The guitar is the lead supporting act in this creation, with a very impressive set of lead licks to boot. The rhythm team provide a solid platform for the two “front-liners” to excel and the whole proves to be eminently listenable. An extremely promising start!

Dead On Arrival displays a nice sense of double-tracking the lead vocals, creating a smooth lyrical harmony above the signature guitar-driven tune. The band’s style becomes clear as a thoroughly decent vehicle for Ella’s hugely talented vocals, and the result on this track is very radio-friendly, bridging that gap between AOR and heavy rock, the self-tagged description of a marriage between Fleetwood Mac meets Foo Fighters being a good summary. Shame Old continues in much the same vein, very enjoyable but in danger of being “type-cast”? Flames is softer, closer to the Mac end of the musical range, reminding me of Heart at times, a rock ballad at heart with smooth rhythms and a mid-Atlantic feel. It does indeed become clear that layered harmonies and melody are key to this band.

Hands Move To Midnight could be this band’s tribute to Status Quo in its four-bar blues attack. Ella adds that extra dimension in her swooping, sweeping singing in the choruses. Infectious stuff! And then we have something completely different in Arrowhead, as the sumptuous video below illustrates. A wistful, poignant love song, accentuated by lovely keys, semi-acoustic strumming and some understated strings. The vocals on this one lift Ella into the Premier League of female vocalists, some luscious lead licks combining to make this a mesmeric track. Right up there with the best that Stevie Nicks ever delivered, seriously gorgeous!

Better Get In Line brings us back up to pace, a great 70’s/80’s riff underpinning a raucous song, redolent of Beth Hart belting it out. And that’s a serious compliment. This track successfully morphs from an earlier sort of punchy rock into a smoother bridge section, almost semi-acoustic with ethereal vocals before returning to the full-on powerhouse treatment. Some great sustained lead licks in here by the way, a really strong track.

Black Waves has another nicely multi-layered vocal to it, cleverly created whilst riding high above a hypnotic chugg-along riff – and that’s before Ella really gets stuck into the chorus. It’s suitably dark in tone, vocally quite brooding and threatening whilst still managing to be extremely catchy – to my mind inevitably drawing comparisons with Finnish compatriots HIM in their lighter moments – and perhaps Walks In Darkness? Either way, I really like the ‘mesmeric ear-worm’ nature of this one.

Whispers lowers the intensity for a while, another track driven by huge melodies, this could have been on Fleetwood’s Tusk album given its up-front percussion and smooth arrangement. Ella just soars effortlessly above the whole, the softer side of her vocals being totally immersive. Not Your Fool then storms in with the immortal opening couplet “these are my final words for you – before I scrape you off my shoe”. Wonderful stuff, what’s not to like! Another happy blend of Pat Benatar, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, so infectiously catchy and some damn fine musicianship almost going under the radar here. Again, the multi-tracking of Ella’s voice is very effective, creating something of an AOR masterpiece in my Humble?

Last Frontier again reminds me of Beth Hart in her soulful powerhouse moments, Ella creating such a huge sound whilst always remaining totally in control. She.Is.A.Revelation! And Tomi Julkunen is not exactly a slouch on guitar either, there’s some scorching licks on this one. Then we come to the closing number, Wake Me. It’s starts off semi-acoustically again, a smooth ballad that gets elevated by Ella’s voice, restrained licks, neat arrangement and crisp percussion in a way that Fleetwood Mac would be proud of. Very, very accomplished!

To sum up – Ginger Evil might not be breaking too many musical boundaries on this album, but I have to say that what they do, they do it extremely well, resulting in what for me is a hugely appealing, cross-over mainstream melodic rock album. I love it!