Finland, a country that I have to say, in recent times has surprised me. Why? There are many things you expect when you first think of this country, such as it's racing drivers, for example, as a large number of driving champions have emerged from Finland. One thing you probably don't expect, or otherwise would expect, is for great music to emerge from this place, but believe it or not, it is possible, and the recent reviews I have done of new Finnish bands/releases, proves this theory and today I hope to argue my point even further with the band featured in todays review.

Their name is SET UP TO FAIL and their new EP "Acedia" is the musical subject of this review. Hailing from Rovaniemi in Finland, this Melodic Metal quintet so far have 4 releases (including their newest EP) under their belt, and so far, they have all been EP's, so a full-length studio album is most likely inevitable to happen at some time in the future.

When I first saw the genre the band specialize in, which is Melodic Metal, I got very excited as I have heard a couple of really good Melodic Metal bands in recent years, with one being a band I strongly support and follow in anyway I can, and that band is of course, EDEN'S CURSE (the European version). I also like Melodic Metal as a genre, as you can take elements of Heavy Metal and add a Melodic Rock type sound to them to create a completely new and unique genre.

Combine all of the above and you expect SET UP TO FAIL to walk in the same boots such as the example I listed, right? Wrong! I know that every country, as great as it may be, has bad days when it comes to producing new music and I have heard examples of this from Sweden, which is a country I do like when it comes to Rock music but they do have their bad moments but they always make up for it with the next one.

Out of all the Finnish releases I have heard in recent times, this has got to be, what is in my opinion, the first bad day from Finland's Rock and Metal scene, as there is a lot about this 4 song EP which doesn't sit right with me. I guess I should start with the composition. I'm grateful that the songs are short in length and that there's only 4 of them because if they were any longer or if there were any more songs, I'd probably go crazy.

The moment I blasted this EP for the first time, I picked up on a few things here and there which didn't sound right to me, including the arrangements of the melodies, which aren't terrible, per-say, but at times they can sound very cluttered, very aggressive, very messy, and sometimes sound a bit out of place.

Another niggle I have is with the vocals, which mainly seem to focus on becoming as savage as possible to match the fast paced savage aggressive melodies. This wouldn't be so bad if you could hear and understand the lyrics, but unfortunately, that is not the case here, as there is too much growling and screaming to make sense of what the vocalist is actually trying to say, meaning you never really get to enjoy the music as much as you want to.

Bottom line, the new EP from SET UP TO FAIL is something that I never otherwise would have expected to come out of Finland, as I've heard nothing but great releases from them in recent times, so to get a mediocre release like this is completely unexpected. Mind you, this did happen with Sweden a while back, which totally shocked me, as I never expected them to give us a bad release, but I guess you will always have bad days as a musician/artist/band etc. So you need to work hard to bounce back, and I know that one day Finland will redeem themselves and give us a great musical release to listen to, which is a day I look forward to greatly. In the meantime, I guess I'll listen to the other great Finnish promos I've been sent in recent weeks, as this one just doesn't sit with me I'm afraid, and I can't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would do.<