Erja Lyytinen - Diamonds On The Road - Live 2023.

ERJA LYYTINEN

DIAMONDS ON THE ROAD – LIVE 2023

(Tuohi Records)

By Paul Davies

The queen of Nordic-noir blues rock returns and at her sonically forceful best with this volcanic hot live recording. It's her fourth live album and, this one being recorded at Rytmikorjaamo, Seinäjoki, in the Western part of Finland, it’s a scorcher. It captures Erja, and her devilishly good band, in full lava flow during their ten-date Spring 2023 tour.

               Showcasing choice cuts from her most recent and acclaimed studio album, Waiting For Daylight, and favourite older songs, the high energy expended by Erja, and backed up to the hilt by her band, sounds like it put the front of house soundboard needles emphatically into the red zone. The surprise ingredient to this new album promoting track list is her ode to Finnish artist Pekka Halonen ́s painting ‘Väinämöinen Tuonelassa’. It's based on the Finnish epic saga, Kalevala, in which a shaman called Väinämöinen goes into the Underworld. On this folk-metal hybrid, Erja also sings in her native Finnish tongue to awesome effect.

               But it's the adrenalised stunner, Diamonds On The Road, that opens a sparkling and muscular set of songs in which one can hear the shock and awe of the audience's reaction. This album's single, You Talk Dirty, is a set to stun musical medusa of a song: one listen and you're trapped then partially released by follow up tune, Lover's Novels. As a live artist, Lyytinen never fails to lay her intentions on the line as she rocks the rafters of this Finnish outpost.

               These thirteen well-chosen tracks, including a frantic fret burn-up on Hendrix's Crosstown Traffic, fully represents her live experience. Not forgetting her astonishing vocal delivery that could sink an iceberg. This is a hot and cool album in equal parts from an artist who still shines tough as a diamond.