Psychework

If anything has come to define Finnish prog-metallers Psychework, then it has to be the undercurrent of optimism battling against the odds that runs through their music. Across three albums – //The Dragon’s Year// (2016), //Karelian Hills// (2018) and 2023’s //Spark Of Hope// – the sextet of singer Antony Parviainen, guitarists J-V Hintikka and Juha Takanen, Otto Närhi (Keyboards), Konsta Vehkala (drums) and bassist Ville Koskinen have constantly come up victorious when circumstances may have dictated a different outcome.

Hailing from the south central city of Jyväskylä, Psychework formed in the harshest of circumstances following the dissolution of Parviainen and Hintikka’s previous outfit, Machine Man.

“I got really sick with leukemia,” says Parviainen, “and when I was in hospital, I got the idea for the new band. I called J-V and asked him what he thought about making melodic and symphonic kind of music and he was in immediately. The whole thing started there and I wrote most of the lyrics for the first album when I was in hospital.”

Though their debut wasn’t a concept album, Parviainen admits that a number of songs dealt with his condition. On the other hand, Psychework’s second album was an unapologetic concept album, dealing as it did with the Continuation War – AKA the Second Soviet-Finnish War. Meanwhile, their current album lives up to its title.

“I felt that //Spark Of Hope// was the perfect title,” says Parviainen. “If I think about the songs, in every one of them the meaning behind them is the search for hope.”

Lyrical concerns aside, Parviainen is keen to stress the sense of drama that drives their material.

“It’s the most important thing in our music,” he says. “When I write lyrics, I want to find a really strong story and we want to put the drama in our music. I’ll tell J-V the story and he’ll write the music based on that. But he writes a lot, so sometimes I’ll pick up on the melodies and riff.”

Having completed a tour of Finland, Psychework aren’t taking things easy and eager to move on to their next project. “We’re writing some new music and I hope we don’t have to wait five years until the next album,” smiles Parviainen. Here’s hoping, indeed. Which is what you’d expect.