Häive is a solo-project of Varjosielu from the ethnic metal band Auringon Hauta (previously known as Solgrav). Häive has released three demo-EP's, a 3-way-split with Wyrd and Kehrä, and a full-lenght album since it's birth in 2003. The project's nature has been melancholic and truly close to nature this far, but on this EP the word "melancholic" can almost be left out. The release is the only purely instrumental release from Häivä this far - the band's latest demo and the album from '07 featured some black metal-esque shrieks along with clean and "two-man-choir" vocals.
The EP is themed around and dedicated to the vast lake-area Saimaa which, according to the title, cannot be explained by words. So how is the artist trying to describe this area? The two first songs are a mix of some traditional melodies and the artist's own composings. These are brought to life through a nicely and naturally distorted but still well clear guitar creating the basic patterns for the songs, and occasionally serving as a more rock-like medium for delivering some more epic and bold guitar melodies. The drums are in a supporting role, aside of some sparse blasting and such, and have a nicely clear and natural sound, too. Each hit is well recognizeable.
The traditional guitar melodies in these songs are supported - and occasionally even pushed back and thus overtaken - by some beautiful acoustic kantele-melodies that are a big reason for the songs' appeal, atmosphere, and natural feel. There's also some flutes here and there spicing up the soundscape, but the first two tracks rely most on the electric guitar and kantele and the traditional melodies. These melodies are employed through repetition and rather safe and sure changes in the compositions in order not to disturb the even epic and grand atmospheres conjured from the string instruments. Even though these songs occasionally lift off in an impressive and thematically fitting manner, the too safe choices in the compositions lower their value song-wise. You can't listen to the too often, which is a shame as the atmospheres are very enjoyable.
Track three is the best one on this disc. It's the only that doesn't rely on traditional compositions, and also the most (but still not too) melancholic one - whereas the record begun with it's most epic and cheerful song. Much of this melancholy is due to the pedal harmonium used in the track's calm mid-way, and it also gives the atmosphere a really personal and interesting touch with it's somewhat accordion-like sound. The track's true strenght is that it's not as predictable or repetitive as the two previous ones, and thus it manages to create a stronger, more captivating atmosphere.
The release's packaging is really fitting and stylish. The covers are printed on recycled or otherwise grainy paper and topped with some peeled-off paint -like "splatters" to give the release a natural and even mystical feel. There's not much text to be seen, as most of the space is given to the beautiful images that really help the music to deliver it's feel. Only the basic (but well sufficient) info can be found. For some reason the song lenghts in the back cover are all wrong, though, but otherwise the covers are pretty much perfect - and zero of the images are reused within the release.
Overall the release succeeds in what it was made to do: it creates a really natural, ethnic and fitting description of the area Saimaa through mixing traditional compositions and instruments together with metal-instruments. This release doesn't try to be metal just to be metal, each of the instruments have a clear purpose in the whole. The problem just is that the traditional melodies don't last listening too well, causing them to lose a lot of their charm pretty easily. If the guitars and drums would've been used more freely instead of following the traditional melodies, the whole end result might've been very different. This is a good EP and a daring and succesful experiment from the band nonetheless. Häive is a very noteworthy name amidst the bands that mix metal with real ethnic elements.