Album Review: "Wounds Wide Open" by Finnish Gothic Metal Band to Die For

Finnish Gothic metal/hard rock band To Die For released an incredible album called Wounds Wide Open in 2006. At first glance because of the band’s name you might think that these guys play some cheesy, overdone, and saturated kind of hard rock. But those kinds of thoughts will disappear as soon as you take the journey into an album that is highly melodic and contains good vocals by Jape Peratalo. One of the guitarists that contributes on the album is Joonas Koto of the band Malpractice. Sometimes the band’s name is written To/Die/For.

Although the lyrical themes tend to focus on sadness, melancholy, and loss, you never get the sense that you will be sad and cry. You will be in utter amazement at the incredible musicianship that is present on this album.

As the first song says though, you can run from sorrow but sorrow will find you.

1. "Intro-Sorrow"
2. "Wicked Circle"
3. "Guilt Ridden State"
4. "Like Never Before"
5. "Under a Velvet Sky"
6. "Scar Diary"
7. "New Heaven"
8. "The Quiet Room"
9. "Liquid Lies"
10. "I Just Want You" (original song performed by Ozzy Osbourne)
11. "Sorrow Remains"

This is particularly the case for the track "Liquid Lies" as you can also hear keyboard being played. The song is about someone that will go to great lengths to deceive, mislead, and lie to someone to get whatever they want. They do not care about the possibility of payback or the price that they will pay for their transgressions. The person that is being treated like this wonders whether the other person will show them who they really are. Particularly in Western countries, people will put this kind of social mask on and pretend to be someone that they are not. This may be a generalized statement, but Western culture has lots of vices that people may object to. That’s a different topic for a different day but the band brings up the subject for thought. There is a performance of Ozzy Osbourne’s song “I Just Want You” on the album and it is a pretty good cover. This is a love song that just sends the message that the man in love really wants to be with the love of his life. When someone is that determined to be with the love of his life, there seems to be no obstacles that can’t be overcome, no doors that can’t be broken down. He has one simple mission in his life and he just wants to be with the love of his life.

The album opens up with a short introduction about sorrow as we hear piano being played. "Wicked Circle" has a sort of atmospheric start to it as the keyboard is mixed in with the guitar sound. Like Never Before sounds like the type of song that heavy Gothic rockers Lullacry would have done in their career. "Under a Velvet Sky" has always been one of my favorite songs due to the vocal performance. The song is mainly about two lovers feeling more alive at night when the sun sets. Although they may be driven by the feeling of lust, they feel no sorrow and there is that adrenaline rush in their veins as they get ready to make love. They clearly don’t feel the same way when the sun shines during the day. New Heaven is one other outstanding song. It is about someone that has sinned so much and has been so lustful that he feels like he is dying inside. He wants to be shown a different path. He wants to be shown that life is indeed worth living. Our bodies go back to dust after we die but while we are on Earth, there is a reason why we are here. It is because we have a mission in this life, we all have a path that we must go through. No matter how bleak life may seem, it is always worth living. As Peratalo sings the following lines, you can clearly hear his emotion and feeling. “Catch my fall, rip the pain out from my chest, show me a new heaven.” The Quiet Room is a great, slower song on this album that has also been one of my favorites over the years. The song is about someone is sitting in a quiet room all alone. He sits there and waits for hours and he somehow knows that the one he loves is already gone from this world. Someone comes to his door after what seems like an eternity to give him the sad news that she is gone. He says that they did what they could but that they could not save her. Death and loss are painful for the ones that remain on Earth but somehow life must go on. If there is anything we can learn from this song, it is that we should enjoy our lives as much as we can because one day that life will end for all of us. One song that may be overlooked is the song called "Scar Diary" which is a song about someone that writes diary or journal entries of how his life has happened. Sometimes, we experience so much pain and regret it seems that all that can happen is for life to go downhill.

Wounds Wide Open is one of the excellent Gothic metal releases not just of 2006 but of music in general. It seems that Finns can do nothing wrong when it comes to Gothic metal as well. Does this album get a perfect score? No, but it comes close to that as I will give it a 96 out of 100 points because there is very little wrong with the album if anything.