MARKO HIETALA – Roses from the Deep (2025) *HQ*

Renowned Finnish vocalist, bassist, and songwriter MARKO HIETALA (Nightwish, Tarot) has finished his new solo album, ”Roses From The Deep”, set to be released on February 7, 2025. This marks Hietala’s first major project since his critically acclaimed Pyre of the Black Heart captivated fans worldwide in 2020.
”Roses From The Deep” delivers a unique blend of melody, dark introspective lyricism and soaring, cinematic soundscapes. Hietala has crafted an album that transcends genres, with elements of classic rock, progressive rock, and symphonic metal seamlessly intertwined.
What surprises from ”Roses From The Deep” is how melodic it is, and despite some intricate moments, pretty accessible. There’s rocking moments as well, even a couple of epic, anthemic songs like the killer ‘Rebel of the North’. On other songs we hear acoustic guitars and strings in the music too, and Marko’s vocals never stretches for those rough moments that made Hietela’s voice familiar.
A varied, interesting album with something for everyone yet cohesive as a whole, very well produced with a multi-track layered mix.

Marko Hietala is a gifted, experienced musician, so it should come as no surprise that ”Roses from the Deep” is a confident album with varied influences. Across ten songs and fifty-four minutes, ”Roses from the Deep” treads traditional and symphonic metal territories, with acoustic and orchestral passages scattered in.
Most of the choruses are huge, bombastic, get-stuck-in-your-head-forever types, with “Frankenstein’s Wife” and “Proud Whore” having the catchiest of the bunch.
The riffs are loud and nearly as catchy, with songs like “Dragon Must Die” and, especially, “Rebel of the North” enhancing Hietala’s heaviest of singing styles. The former it’s layered, it’s heavy, it’s symphonic and it’s got folk and metallic influences in generous droves. Without a doubt this eight-minute epic is the best thing Marko’s done outside of Nightwish.

Then, in the breaks between the bangers, ”Roses from the Deep” offers somber, acoustic-orchestral songs in the title track and the beautifully earnest “Two Soldiers.” No matter where Marko Hietala treads, he finds solid ground, a nod to the superb performances, production, and songwriting on display.

Irrespective of his storied past, what matters most today is that this wonderful musician, singer and writer, this enjoyably eccentric metal Gandalf, is back with us in the way that works for him. Roses From The Deep is better than any of us could have expected.
Highly Recommended

01 – Frankenstein’s Wife
02 – Left on Mars
03 – Proud Whore
04 – Two Soldiers
05 – The Dragon Must Die
06 – The Devil You Know
07 – Rebel of the North
08 – Impatient Zero
09 – Tammikuu
10 – Roses from the Deep
11 – Impatient Zero (Edit)

Marko Hietala (vocal, bass, guitar)
Tuomas Wäinölä (guitar)
Vili Ollila (keys, synths)
Anssi Nykänen (drums)

Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Roses-Deep-Marko-Hietala/dp/B0DP3QKMJ7