You never know what to expect from these Finnish avant-rockers, as each new album moves from kraut rock inspired hypnosis to strange jazz to deformed forest folk...but Circle's Tulikoira features the band in rippin' "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal" mode, the NWOFHM logo splashed across the inside of the booklet just in case there is any confusion. Everything that Circle puts out is amazing, but I gotta say that my favorite stuff from them is their mutant, kraut-rock influenced take on classic heavy metal action. The four tracks on Tulikoira take that kraut rock approach and applies it to fast paced heavy metal that's obviously inspired by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, and other early Brit metal legends, similiar to their awesome 2002 album Sunrise; killer riffs are locked into repeato mode, equal parts Can and Maiden, Neu! and Priest. The album opens with the seven-minute "Rautakaarme", which begins with dark glistening ambience, metallic chimes and stray piano notes, as distant chanting vocals and surges of feedback appear and suddenly give way to a raging, speedy heavy metal assault that is accompanied by awesome, haunting sympho-synthesizers and those weird monk chants, breaking apart into passages of creepy drones before kicking back in with the metal. Super mesmerizing and ferocious! "Tulilintu" is the second song, and it starts immediately in metal mode, an awesome combo of Judas Priest style rockin' and Finnish singing, a headbanging rager filled with awesome Halford style screams, weird electronic effects and killer guitar solos. The third track "Berserk" is more atmospheric, with weird spoken lines appearing over a repetitive bass and drums groove, part 70's funk soundtrack and dark droning ambience. Finally, the album's closing track kicks in, a 25 minute epic called "Puutiikeri" that starts off with a chunky metal riff but then wanders through a weird, spacey mix of lush, soaring synthesizers, chanted vocals, fractured techno rhythms, pulsing motorik drumming and exploratory acid-rock leads, splattery improv clatter, cosmic electronic whoosh, and hushed whispers. That track is easily the album's centerpiece, serving up everything we love about these FInnish rockers in a dreamlike stew of hypno-psych weirdness, the connecting thread between their Sunrise album and the creepout forest trance of Circle's Forest.