Verikalpa: Tuoppitanssi (Scarlet Records)
Pausing only to dust down my favourite drinking tankard, this month sees the release of the second album from Finnish Folk Metal sextet Verikalpa. Not an act I have come across before, probably because they don’t seem to do much outside Finland and sing in Finnish, but I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I’m always slightly wary of bands in this vein (because let’s face it Alestorm own this corner of the market), and anyone else using an accordion sound so heavily is bound to face challenges of plagiarism, but in reality these guys have been around a little longer, and just took a long time to get anything released.
I honestly can’t tell if this is intended to be humorous due to the language barrier, although as the album title translates to Pintdance, along with the 2 medieval types duelling with tankards on the cover leads me to believe that the tongue is more than likely firmly in someone else’s cheek lyrically. This is much heavier than many other acts in this vein, both musically and vocally (no clean vocals or faux piraticals on this bad boy), with a good dollop of power metal stirred in with the folk. There’s an outstanding, solid rhythm section at work here - check out Sankari, Saatana, Kostoja (which translates loosely to Here, Satan, Revenge) or Peikon Kieli (The Language Of The Troll) for a couple of real festival crowd-pleasers for a start which oozes heaviness from the outset, with some nifty speedy sections in the middle 8. And then there’s the pile-driving drumming on Karhunkaataja (Bear Hunter) to really hammer home how thundering and proficient this rhythm section actually is. Not afraid to dive into some well-polished instrumental breaks, this album has a nice lively pace and a polished production, indicating for me an act made up of experienced and technically proficient musicians who like to take their time to get things right in the studio.
If I have a criticism it’s for the decision to stick to the accordion setting on the keyboards throughout – a bit of variety here would have gone a long way, as in all other aspects the tone and pace of the music has plenty of variety to keep the listener interested. I could forgive this if a real accordion was in use, but this is minor niggling for an album that otherwise is a solid little cracker. Judging from the paucity of live footage outside of a tiny club in Finland, these guys need to get out and about a bit more, as this album is an explosive introduction to a talented bunch that the world needs to meet. 8/10
Intronaut: Fluid Existential Inversions (Metal Blade)
This little mouthful is the sixth outing for Californian prog outfit Intronaut. It’s got the elements you expect from an experienced progressive band – a trippy cover, complex and varied songs, with some serious musicianship on display - bouncing between their prog, metal and jazz influences like a pinball on an experimental drugs trial, but sounding far more planned and controlled than an out- and-out experimental jam. Musically these guys are good, but nowhere near as overt in their virtuosity as you might expect from say, a Dream Theater or as full on metal as a Symphony X. To be clear, this is not about skill, it’s about showing controlled restraint, with an undercurrent of anger just bubbling under that is far more effective than the more showy techniques employed by some other acts in this broadchurch.
This is a far more subtle beast, with some restrained ambient moments mixed in with the full on metal ones, often within the same song (the aptly named Tripolar being a great example), with the vocal styles proving as fluid as the instrumental ones. However, when they turn on the heavy, it’s a two tonne Mjölnir hammer on the ear drums and this album’s contrasts between light and dark work best when played up loud, giving the listener the opportunity to hear the lovely mixtures of tones from the instruments, with guitar sounds often changing several times throughout a track -particularly the guitars which veer from the technical harmonic to the downright sludgy mid song without jarring. And they are only a four piece to boot…
Underpinning this is a very strong bass sound, which is absolutely driving every twist and turn of the songs, without being in your face in a Steve Harris kind of way. The album carries itself well through its 53 minutes (so quite restrained for a prog album), although the final track Sour Everythings doesn’t seem to have the focus and polish of everything else on the album, and feels like it may have been included to get the running time up, rather than because it belonged there or had been as polished as its companions. The rest of the album holds up well though, and I found I had listened to it three times without writing a word, which is a sign that I’ve found an act I’m going to keep listening to… 7/10
Duskwood: The Lost Tales EP (Self-Released)
Clearly I need to get across the Bristol Channel more often. Duskwood hail from Yeovil in Somerset, and are very technically tight 4 piece desert/stoner outfit, with this EP being a conceptual follow up to last year’s The Long Dark, so for those in the know - more Space Cowboy adventures may be included. This is a lively little 4 track EP which has a lot going for it. Wasting no time kicking in the door with the punchy Kenosha, this track sets the tone for the EP with swirling guitars and back to basics solos from Greg Watts, solid, technical and moody rhythms from Aaron Tinsley and Hugh Landon, and an absolutely soaring vocal turn from singer Liam Tinsley - resisting the genre standard of the haunting growl to throw out some proper metal high screams, which really add to the atmosphere.
Second track The Watcher heads into more traditional stoner territory, with a more haunting atmospheric feel to it, and some nice time changes to go with the mood-mongering. The more rhythmically technical Oraculum builds an intense trippy mood and feels much more like a jam, even though there’s some really quite nifty controlled beat work underpinning it. This technical underpinning follows on into final track The Island, which more than any other shows that Liam has range and subtlety to his vocals. Oh and hold on for the hidden track at the end….
These guys seem to be building a good following out on the road, and these last couple of EP’s seem to be a conscious decision to keep the content coming out with quality of material definitely being higher on the list of priorities than quantity. Even if they may not have the resources to do another full album, one is probably overdue now. Either way, these guys have crafted an emotive little opus here and I would definitely like to see if they can deliver live. 8/10
Shakra: Mad World (AFM)
This is a tough business. Bands can be solid, on it and work their asses of over the years, but never really seem to get the big breaks. Although moderately successful in their native Switzerland and in Germany, where hard rock never went out of vogue (and believe me the mullet cut is still alive and well out there) Shakra never seem to have broken out beyond some promising support slots with more successful acts who have leap frogged them, probably not helped by the challenges of keeping a stable line up over their 25 years.
I’m not familiar with their extensive back catalogue, but judging from this album, this is an experienced bunch who know how churn out the solid rock tunes, and single Too Much Is Not Enough seems a good snapshot of their talents as any, albeit a bit by the numbers. The more moody and rockin’ A Roll Of The Dice or I Still Rock are far stronger tracks in my humble opinion, with some nice rhythmic foot tapping moments and may have been a better choice of single, proving that when bands are trying to be (or under pressure to be) commercial that they may be far better to just stick to what comes naturally.
Title track Mad World holds itself up well, and there’s plenty of tracks on here with catchy riffs and melodies (Turn The Light On, Son Of Fire and When It Comes Around to name but three). The production is crisp and clear, with a full fat sound you would expect from a band whose influences are firmly in the late 80’s, but despite all these ticks in the boxes the whole thing fails to grab my attention. If I put my mind back into how I felt in those long gone days, when a hard rockin’ band where what got my goat, I still think this will have fallen into the also-ran category and languished in the depths of an old indie label whilst contemporaries ran up lavish debts on major labels.
There’s a sense of recognition that the world has changed and not such a fun place in this album’s lyrics (Fake News in particular), but somehow that doesn’t quite translate into the kind of soul touching empathy and emotion that this genre can be capable of, even closing ballad New Tomorrow is just too formulaic and forced to really work and so ‘almost, but not quite’ seems like a reasonable summary of the album. 5/10
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