by Rob Caldwell
Kingston Wall was a hard-edged progressive rock band from Finland highlighted by the inspired and inventive guitar playing of Petri Walli. Though their influences (Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix) can be heard often in the music, the band did not lack for an identifying sound. Walli had traveled in India and you can hear this Eastern influence in much of the music. Lyrically, the songs largely concern themselves with mythology, psychedelics, and the standard love/love gone wrong theme. The primary weakness of the band's songs lies in the vocals. At times they're okay, but often Walli's Finnish accent hampers the English lyrics, making them sound almost cartoonishly heavy metal-like. Formed in Helsinki in 1987 (with a different drummer), the band didn't release it's first album until 1992. II, their most accomplished album, came out in 1993 and refined the sound somewhat, adding some broader and more exotic textures and even some acoustic guitar. Musically, they seemed to be taking a different direction by the time of III Tri-Logy, which had a more techno-oriented sound and incorporated synthesizer. Yet, after playing their last show in December 1994 (in a prison), they called it quits. Walli committed suicide six months later by jumping off a church tower. While Kingston Wall existed they had not much more than a cult following, releasing all their albums on their own label, Trinity, and only performing outside of Finland once (in Estonia). Since the band's demise, though, they've become more of an influence on other artists and a CD of trance remixes (The Freakout Remixes) of their songs was released in 2000.
Kingston Wall was a hard-edged progressive rock band from Finland highlighted by the inspired and inventive guitar playing of Petri Walli. Though their influences (Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix) can be heard often in the music, the band did not lack for an identifying sound. Walli had traveled in India and you can hear this Eastern influence in much of the music. Lyrically, the songs largely concern themselves with mythology, psychedelics, and the standard love/love gone wrong theme. The primary weakness of the band's songs lies in the vocals. At times they're okay, but often Walli's Finnish accent hampers the English lyrics, making them sound almost cartoonishly heavy metal-like. Formed in Helsinki in 1987 (with a different drummer), the band didn't release it's first album until 1992. II, their most accomplished album, came out in 1993 and refined the sound somewhat, adding some broader and more exotic textures and even some acoustic guitar. Musically, they seemed to be taking a different direction by the time of III Tri-Logy, which had a more techno-oriented sound and incorporated synthesizer. Yet, after playing their last show in December 1994 (in a prison), they called it quits. Walli committed suicide six months later by jumping off a church tower. While Kingston Wall existed they had not much more than a cult following, releasing all their albums on their own label, Trinity, and only performing outside of Finland once (in Estonia). Since the band's demise, though, they've become more of an influence on other artists and a CD of trance remixes (The Freakout Remixes) of their songs was released in 2000.
