Album Review of
Second Round

Written by Robert Silverstein
September 15, 2022 - 4:59pm EDT
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Hailing from the Northern European country of Finland, The Webasto carries on the surf-rock instrumental sound in style on their 2022 comeback album simply titled Second Round and, overall the album is a welcome return to form for the band nearly 18 years after their 2004 album Cold And Hunger. The 13-track album features a heavy accent on the Finnish “Rautalanka” guitar style that blends a reverb-heavy Ventures / Shadows instro guitar style with even more refined European melodic edges.

There’s even a surf-rock arrangement of the theme song from the mid-1960s TV show The Munsters. With no heavy Finnish vocals in the way, that Rautalanka style of guitar instrumental music has stayed extremely popular throughout Finland and much of Scandinavia since the 1960s. Featuring a very clean electric guitar sound and haunting melodies to suit their sound, The Webasto breathes new life into the instrumental surf-rock guitar world with Second Round.