Von Hertzen Brothers – War is over

Finland’s Von Hertzen Brothers are back with a new album, “War is over”, their seventh studio album. They’ve been making a name for themselves over the last few years in particular, not just in the Prog world, but also in the wider rock world.

For this album the three brothers wrote separately at their family cabin near Helsinki rather than writing together. The lyrics were written by Mikko in January this year while he was spending a month in India. The new approach certainly seems to have paid off – the songs on this album are some of their best work to date.

The album kicks off with the title track, “War is over”. It’s a pretty epic song clocking in at well over 12 minutes long and feels like several songs in one.

For most of the album though the songs are much shorter, clocking in around 4-5 minutes duration, so more like a typical rock album, with the other long song being “Beyond the storm” which closes the album. The songs are definitely prog influenced but aren’t so far into prog territory that they stop appealing to rock fans. That I think is one of the big things – the fact that they are able to appeal to a wide range of music lovers. They are able to combine complex arrangements and different time signatures and still keep the songs accessible rather than disappearing into “weird prog” territory.

Right now there are very few Prog groups I’d rate as highly as Von Hertzen Brothers – in fact only prog supergroup Flying Colors are comparable in my view. Both have beautiful tunes that you can listen to again and again with great vocals and appeal to a wide audience.

Von Hertzen Brothers are currently on tour in the UK.

Track listing:

1. War is over
2. To the end of the world
3. The arsonist
4. Jerusalem
5. Frozen butterflies
6. Who are you?
7. Blindsight
8. Long lost sailor
9. Wanderlust
10. Beyond the storm