Soldiers of Forgiveness - The Year of Capricorn

Soldiers of Forgiveness

The Year of Capricorn
​self-released; 2022

3.8 out of 5

By Dan Weston
​

Soldiers of Forgiveness is an international music project started in 2020 by Finnish-American musician Mikko Viljamaa. Villamaa composes the music and all musicians are recording their parts independently and remotely and they are based in Italy, Portugal, Colombia and United States. They mention “The Year of Capricorn is a concept album that is heavily influenced by the state of the world in 2021 which made me feel like this life is just an eternal power struggle between love and hate.”

The album begins with “The Shadows of Their Gods” and you are greeted with atmospheric orchestral synths and vocals. It’s a very dramatic tone and quality, especially the vocal delivery. In fact it reminded me of something you might hear in a play. 

“Children of The Nameless God” is very much an ’80s inspired rock song in the spirit of Dream Theater. The song revolves around distorted sharp guitar chord progressions, a heavy beat and commanding vocals. The vocalist sings “So maybe your God has a name, but you are just pawns of this GAME. We will never bow to you.”

The ’80s vibes continue and strengthen with “Stop That GAME.” It’s a fast-paced song with a kinetic energy. There’s some exceptional lead guitar work on this song and the chorus is one of the more memorable on the album. 

We get an acoustic rock ballad of sorts with “In The Eyes of Other Gods.” It’s another song that goes for an epic feel and the poetic lyrics match the feel of the song. The vocalist sings “When you believe in One and I believe in None, we are all the same in the eyes of other gods.”

The band rocks hard with “The Heart of Pariah” while “All The Good TIMES” goes back into ballad mode but a little more pensive and melancholy this time around. “The Year of Capricorn” is almost eleven minutes long. They combine a number of styles here. It started again very dramatically and was reminiscent of Nick Cave. The song then goes into a chip-tune like rocking out section which is very synth heavy.

“TIME Will Find You All” is sort of a subdued piano ballad and also one of my personal favorites on the album. “Flaming Streets” is extremely fast and I was impressed by how in the pocket they sounded. Last but not least is “The GAME of Life.” There’s a different vocalist on this song and the sound fantastic.

The Year of Capricorn is drenched in ’80s nostalgia and I think fans of that era of music will appreciate it most. This was a solid album from beginning to end. Take a listen.

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