Stoned Statues (Finland) – Knock Knock (single/future album track)

The lovey dovey Eurovision Song Contest You Tube ‘influenzas’ are salivating over Finland’s entry in this year’s contest, the majority reckoning it’s all done and dusted already and that the trophy on its way to Helsinki come 16^th May.

I would respectfully remind them that Finland has only ever won it once, the weird and wonderful evil alien metal bashers Lordi taking the podium in 2006 although Erika Vikman was in with good shout last year in my opinion.

So, short of Tuomas Holopainen writing an entry perhaps they’d be better off with an alt metal band this year?

Enter stage left Tampere’s trio Stoned Statues (and I stress ‘left’ for a reason that will become evident) who really should be ‘Knock Knock’ing on the door in Vienna next month.

It is a song about the hate and anger we all have rooted in us. I don’t think that is disputable today, with a precious few exceptions, and we all have our own reasons for harbouring grudges.

But it goes beyond that as they say, “Fuck the norm, fuck the ones in power.” We, Stoned Statues, stand on the side of those whose voices have been silenced. It’s time to take the wrong people down from positions of power. We are here and we are loud. A song for those that have been knocked down, pushed over and undermined.”

“I get knocked down but I get up again/you’re never going to keep me down” as anarchistic punk rockers Chumbawamba used to sing in ‘Tubthumping’. Almost 30 years on, the location has changed but the message remains the same. Power to the People.

So it’s a song about anger as a tool to express yourself, and about standing loudly on the side of the people ‘they’ have walked over on the way up.

You know this song really should go down well here in the UK right now, what with the appalling politicians we’ve got lording it over us (pardon the pun).

They are much more than your standard two-chord punk bashers and crashers. They do make a big effort to find melody and do succeed to a degree here. The difficulty is that singer and front woman Jenna Kosunen has a voice – somewhere between those of Catatonia’s Cerys Matthews and the Ting Tings’ Katie White – that seems more attuned to backing driving punk and hard rock with pure angst than conveying even anarchistic views through thoughtful lyrics.

Ultimately she ends up in a boxing match with guitar, percussion and her own bass as to which should predominate, losing on a close scorecard in the final round.

That isn’t to criticise ‘Knock Knock’ in any way. As an anthem for the common people it works well and their high speed musicianship is admirable. But rather than studying the lyrics into the night for hidden meanings you’d be better off just going along to one of their gigs and banging your head on a speaker.

‘Knock Knock’, and its accompanying video shown here, is available now on all streaming platforms. The album ‘Nothing is ever over’ follows on June 12th via Sakara Records.

Find them on:

Website: https://www.stonedstatues.com/