TURISAS may have been in hibernation since 2013, but their legendary violinist, Olli Vänskä, certainly has not! While we missed him in live shows during his paternity leave and haven’t seen him on stage in more recent years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that only means that this new track, “Deadline,” – released independently on June 4th, 2021 – was a very pleasant surprise.
Fans often expect someone’s solo projects to sound like their main band, yet that is rarely what the product ends up being. In the case of Olli Vänskä, I would go so far as to say that I now have some idea of what parts of TURISAS come from his influence, as opposed to the other way around.
The violin melody, to no one’s surprise, is one of the driving points in “Deadline” – melodic and powerful, with a bit of folky flavor – but the layered vocals prove to be equally magical. The song has added flavor by Olli‘s composer brother, Perttu Vänskä, as well as guitars by Mathias Kupiainen [STRATOVARIUS], both of whose talents clearly shine through in this song – the former due to the fabulous production value of the whole package, including the wonderful dynamics, and the latter whose crisp fretwork provides great support without distracting from the violin.
The other outstanding detail in “Deadline” is the lyrical value. Anyone who has ever been interested in art knows how hard it can be to bring ideas to life, for endless reasons (a clever book called The War of Art calls this “resistance”). This song is a beautiful reminder that “time goes on, it waits for no one,” and in the same way that Olli was able to release a solo song around the time of his 40th birthday, we should all find things that we enjoy doing and actually do them, rather than living for a future that may never come.
Altogether, “Deadline” offers a refreshing and poignant melodic piece that may not be heavy enough for some of the metalheads out there, but is sure to please fans of all sorts of melodic and violin musical stylings.
Want to learn more about the single? We asked Olli Vänskä some questions about it on IGTV! Also check out our Spotify playlist, where you can find the most recent singles from rising Finnish bands.
