WALTARI – Nations’ Neurosis

The crazy Finns are back! After I first discovered the band and charismatic and extrovert frontman Kärtsy Hatakka in the early nineties, I was hooked to their brand of metal and weirdness that now spans almost four decades. I followed them through the years and many styles and moods. When I say many, with Waltari that means many with a capital “M”.

From forty Years Ago To Today

The band was founded in the mid-eighties and named after a Finnish novelist Mika Waltari, one of the internationally best known writers from Suomi. In 1991, the debut album Monk Punk was released which featured a wild mix of music that is best characterized as crossover, something that was quite big in the nineties. Plus, indeed, some punk. From that starting point they took the word crossover to a new meaning and did not shy away from anything, from electronic dancefloor sounds to Madonna- and The Cure-covers to their wild mix of classical music and death metal called Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death Metal Symphony in Deep C. Not counting EPs, compilations, collaborations and weird things like the album Yeah Yeah Die Die I just mentioned, Nations’ Neurosis is Waltari’s thirteenth album to date.

How It Was Made

Mastermind Kärtsy has a period of turmoil behind him in which he lost his mother, endured a painful breakup and found the world in a general state of turbulence. But he would not be Kärtsy, hero of forty years of genre defining crossover, had he not channeled those experiences into new songs that he recorded with the help of Aleksanteri Kuosa in three different studios in Finland. Also new is the band’s lineup, only drummer Ville Vehviläinen remained, the guitars are handled by Eero Nykänen, some may know him from his work with Mutant Blast, and Jakke Setälä now. Everything else is done again by Kärtsy himself, including programming which takes a bigger role in 2025 again since the turn of the millennium where the band experimented intensly with electronically created sounds and songs.

Waltari Crossing Over Into The Fifth Decade

This Finnish band was always a chameleon, but on Nations’ Neurosis it takes a new look. A look that is a new shade of colour, not something that changes the shape of the music itself completely, more something that turns out to be different after listening to the fifteen-song-album several times. At first glance it seems in line with what Waltari did so far. Which is to jump like a pinball from style to style, surprise the listener, don’t shy away from the weird and the unusual. The typical contrasts between a metal and hardcore hybrid like “Do You Accept”, dancefloor stuff like the first single “Higher”, melodic metal like in “Nature Rules”, synthie punk like “Est” or industrial Metal like “Kill For Sport” are still the trademarks that take the listener on a rollercoaster ride through the album.

After one invested the time to get to know the new Waltari better, one realizes that two things have changed in comparison to Global Rock, the predecessor of Nations’ Neurosis. Firstly, the album is less metallic than before. For the last twenty years Kärtsy has taken his band onto a strong hardrock and metal foundation from which he extended his feelers to foreign musical territories. In 2025, he replaced some of the guitar work with more dominant keyboards and programming. Secondly, overall the album breathes much more melancholy, less fun than on previous records, certainly an appropriate and understandable step considering the state of the world was in when the songs were composed.

Not Your Average Metal Band

Waltari always was an acquired taste but once these Finns got their hooks in one’s musical brain, every new album is a celebrated opportunity to cleanse the metallic palates and embark on an entertaining ride through the rabbit hole that are Kärtsy’s unusual compositions. While every album contains metal songs, that style is still the combining element for all their albums, each one also sports tracks that would not fit into our program at all. Nations’ Neurosis unfortunately has quite some of these, songs that are simply not fit for the general stream, but still shows enough metal to be worth being featured here. When you encounter Nations’ Neurosis or Waltari in general, proceed with caution. These guys can open doors that may lead you towards unexpected musical landscapes.

Album Tracklist

1. Nature Rules
2. Open The Gate
3. Do You Accept
4. Breakfast In Eiffel Tower
5. Diversity
6. Murder Plot
7. Sun
8. Kill For Sport
9. Flowin’
10. Major Mistake
11. Step Back
12. Higher
13. 7th Heaven
14. EST
15. Last Chance

Band Lineup

Kärtsy Hattaka – lead and backing vocals, bass, programming, keyboards, percussion
Eero Nykänen – guitars
Jakke Setälä – guitars
Ville Vehviläinen – drums

Here is a taste of Nation’s Neurosis called “Do You Accept?”: