Six years is a long time to go without recording an album but Cats of Transnistria have a single or two along the way, the most recent we know of being ‘Big Sleep’ in May of last year and at least one of the duo, Henna E. Hietamäki, has featured here, too. (The other is Tuomas Alatalo).
Separate projects seem to have been the reason for the long wait but that previous single alone easily convinced me that another album would be worth the wait, and it will arrive on March 21st, along with the spring equinox, titled ‘IV’.
‘Big Sleep’ was a deeply satisfying song on account of its musicality, a transition from a sombre parade to a victory anthem, and its lyricism, which examined dreams.
The “unlikely scenario of gothic metal meets dream pop” is how it came across to me.
So I approached this lead single from the album, ‘Horrors’, with a degree of expectation.
There is an air of cinematic grandeur about their work and ‘Horrors’ is no exception, drawing inspiration from the theme to The Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Arnie ‘n all.
Set to a repeating scaled down version of the film’s ‘dum dum dum…dum dum’ beat it is quite a psychy piece otherwise, building with layer heaped upon layer of synthesiser and guitar into a monster that could have been the 11th track on ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ tripping the light fantasticbefore it changes direction in the last quarter to something decidedly more ominous and portentous.
It does that because it was written while Henna was pondering subjects as “the climate catastrophe, the global rise of fascism, the walls protecting inequality and the unknown future of the new generation.”
These are collectively the horrors they perceive.
“Will you be safe from harm
I don’t know
How could I
What horrors will come”
This is where I have to deviate from the script because I’ve never been convinced there is or will be a ‘climate crisis’; because ‘fascism’ has totally lost its meaning in 2025 when it gets banded about by anyone that opposes your viewpoint; the walls protecting inequality seem to be pretty unsturdy to me; and no generation has ever been secure in its own future.
But then I’m a child of the Cold War so I know a little about that.
(Indeed, one of the more memorable lines from Terminator 2 is John Connor’s “There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”)
However, I’ve never let my opinion stand in the way of appreciating a good song. And this is a very good song. I’m sure the album will be, too.
Hasta la Vista, Baby. They’ll soon be back.
‘IV’ will be released on the Soliti Recordings label on 21st March 2025.
The video was filmed by Janne Immonen, and edited by Henna E. Hietamäki.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catsoftransnistria
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catsoftransnistria/ Bandcamp (track): https://catsoftransnistria.bandcamp.com/track/horrors
