Review: "Deviation From the Flow" by Finnish Progressive Metal Band Malpractice

How the review for this album came about

Finnish progressive metal band Malpractice has been playing melodic heavy metal since 1994. Their 2^nd studio album called Deviation from the Flow is a solid work and needs a review. I was listening to the song called "Circles in the Sand" just a few days before starting the review of this album and determined that a review of this album is well deserved. However, the vocalist on this album Mika Uronen quit the band after the release of this album. The music on this album is well-structured, makes sense in terms of the guitar playing and the album addresses some very important life issues such as how to succeed in the work world (The Industry).

1. Assembly Line
2. Colours in Between
3. The Industry
4. The Long Run
5. Divided
6. Expedition
7. Circles in the Sand
8. Fragile Pages

"Assembly Line" is a song about the fact that humans are part of this corporate machine that takes advantage of them at the expense of profits for the employer. It may take a careful analysis of the lyrics for some of you to figure out what the song is saying.

This third song is about someone that works hard in his whole life to try and get somewhere and it seems like he keeps on hitting a dead end. In today’s competitive work world, it is not about how skilled and experienced you are. It depends on who you know and the hiring decision is dependent on what the manager says. "The Long Run" is about a long distance runner that begins a very long distance running marathon. As the sweat goes down his body, he turns back and sees nothing but empty roads. While his feet ache, he wonders if there will ever be an end to the race. The doubts begin to creep into this man’s mind as he wonders if he will fall when he stumbles. He is not even sure whether there will be a second place finish for him. For this long distance runner, anything less than total victory is not enough.

"Divided" is a song about what can happen when two people drift apart and anger and hate take over. If you can save your relationship and prevent it from ending, that would be the best thing to do. Divided may be the weakest song but this album is good enough that this song really does not take down the album’s score too much.

"Expedition" is a song about a group of people that prepare for a long journey up to a very cold place where there is very much sun. Some examples of this are the North Pole or Lapland, a region in northern Finland. The farther north that they go, the sun does not set. At the end of the journey, these men are very proud because they have gone up to a place where few people have been brave enough to go to. Even though they got stuck in ice and even lost a sleigh, these men are at the top of the mountain celebrating their victory. They see clear skies now and they know that their destination is within their sights. The song has a sort of melodic early 1990's Fates Warning feel to it (think of the album Parallels). The melodic "Circles in the Sand" is the strongest song on the album along with "The Industry" and "The Long Run." This is a very good progressive metal album with lots of melody.