Von Hertzen Brothers announce new studio album

Finnish prog rock trio Von Hertzen Brothers have announced that they will release their latest album, Red Alert In The Blue Forest, through Doing Being Music on March 25.

The new album, the band's first since 2017's War Is Over, tackles, among other topics, environmental themes and even features distinct and rarely heard sounds of the Aurora Borealis as captured by Professor Unto K. Laine, on the track Northern Lights.

"The harmony in the Blue Forest is gone," explains Mikko Von Hertzen. "The harmony within is being challenged. We see and feel this imbalance threatening our peaceful existence every day and are reminded of the loss caused and experienced by us humans. So, how do we deal with all the loss? We see warning signs and Red Alert lights going off everywhere but still find it hard to crystallise a constructive response to these big problems. But sometimes we find ourselves experiencing or witnessing something so beautiful and special in our lives that it forces us to do everything we can to share it through our art.

"These are the themes we address on our latest release. Initially, we approached this double album as three painters in a collaborative art show, all of us plunging into the creative process separately. Joint exhibitions can often feel a bit scattered and incoherent but the standstill of the pandemic gave us the time needed to merge and polish our art and, in the end, the vision of three individuals became a vision of one.”

You can view the new album artwork and tracklisting below. There will be a number of bundles and options - including a strictly limited, not reprinted, double vinyl album edition printed in red and blue with gatefold sleeve and a digipack CD.

Pre-orders will open on Wednesday December 15,

Von Hertzen Brothers: Red Alert In The Blue Forest
1. Day Of Reckoning
2. Blue Forest
3. The Promise
4. All of a Sudden, You’re Gone
5. Peace Patrol
6. Pirates of the Raseborgian
7. Anil
8. Elbowed
9. Northern Lights
10. Söderskär
11. Disappear There

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.