Being used to reviewing metal albums, it took me very long to find myself into the vibe of Verenn's debut album 'The Game', but patience pays itself out.
The opening song "Home coming" starts with a simple but catchy rhythm, which reminds me a bit of the late works of The Rasmus, though Verenn's vocals sound much more mature. Lyrically "Home coming" offers a nice mixture of typical mainstream alternative lyrics with the dry Finnish look on the world. The song itself is well-balanced midtempo with an impressive combination of bass and guitars, giving the song a wonderful acoustic depth. The chorus is really catchy, it takes just a few times until you know it by heart and sing along loudly!
The second song, called "Scapegoats" starts with a distant voice followed by heavy guitarchords, the song is more low tempo, but this puts weight into the depressing song, which accuses society to play with the mood and feelings of innocent people, being abused as scapegoats.
Besides the first two songs there are two songs more, that mark my personal highlights on 'The Game', one of them is "Glass house", a very slow and calm but melodic song, with a catchy chorus and dreamy melodies, here it is the vocals that stroke me.
But of course... nothing can compete with "No trace no sound"... I do not know if it is the lyrics, which still slightly remind me of The Rasmus or the great vocal line, but "No trace no sound" has an outstanding position among the songs.
All in all I have to say, Verenn did perform well on their debut album, and presented a well balanced composition, but still I have to admit that I see too many similarities with The Rasmus, though Verenn are much harder in style... maybe they should have been a bit more courageous and put more of their own magnificent note into the music, because they have proven, that they are good musicians...

Ljósálfar