LORDI - LIMITED DEADITION
Reviewed by Laura DQ • 2 April 2025
If, like me, you best remember Lordi as the blokes in monster costumes who won Eurovision back in 2006 with ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’, you might be surprised to discover that the Finnish rockers have just released their nineteenth (!) studio album. An unashamed love letter to the 80s, ‘Limited Deadition’ is loosely conceptual, apparently inspired by frontman and founder Mr Lordi’s lifelong obsession with collecting. It’s a theme that particularly resonates with me, as someone who has also dedicated significant effort into surrounding myself with the things that make me happy; From enamel pin badges, to CDs, to cuddly toys and action figures, I am almost certainly the target audience. And though it’s 80s toys that are the focus here, a collection I’m a little too young to get involved with, the sentiment of the title track still hits hard, the lyric, “I am compelled to get, each item in the set” surely familiar to anyone who has ever questioned if they’re secretly a bit of a hoarder!
Listening to the album is a pleasingly cinematic experience, punctuated with brief interludes that sometimes feel like snippets from a schlocky horror, at others, like ads for the aforementioned toys. Stripped of the visuals that I’m sure many regard as little more than a gimmick, the music is much better than you might expect. Keyboards are an unexpectedly dominant force, lending a melodic, hair metal feel to many of the tracks, albeit with a frontman who snarls rather than preens, often sounding like he needs to clear his throat - apt for a man who spends much of his time dressed as an unholy overlord! Proper stomping, shout 'em out loud anthems are the speciality, the likes of ‘Skelephant in the Room’ and ‘Killharmonic Orchestra’ boasting the kind of rousing choruses that I imagine translate even better on stage.
It’s somewhat harder to imagine Mr Lordi crooning the ballad ‘Collectable’ in his stage gear, a gentle, lilting number that feels notably different when surrounded by its noisier, more belligerent siblings. Not that the heavy riffs and frantic pace are ever at the expense of melody, memorable hooks seeping through every track, even the urgent ‘Syntax Terror’ with its shrieked chorus. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine fellow masked maestros Ghost releasing ‘Hellizabeth’, though it probably wouldn’t sound quite as aggressive. And there’s something almost Steinman-esque about ‘Fangoria’, the rumbling bass-line and female backing vocals adding a real sense of drama.
If you take your rock music particularly seriously, then this probably isn’t the album for you. But I imagine you’d pass on a group wearing monster costumes anyway. That said, if listening to ‘You Might Be Deceased’ doesn’t raise a smile, I’d suggest that you might, in fact, be deceased! There’s more substance to Lordi than meets the eye, and some truly spectacular tunes behind the masks. 'Limited Deadition' is definitely an album I'll be adding to my collection.