Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Kalmah - For the Revolution (2008)

To this point Kalmah have established themselves as one of the very best bands of the Finnish melodeath scene, if not THE best band, edging out peers like Norther and Children of Bodom. With their 5th opus For the Revolution, they are only out to reinforce that fact with yet another excellent effort.

The album boasts a killer Tico Tico studio production, seamlessly blending the band's signature heavy use of synths into the standard instruments. The title track opens the album, pure Kalmah reminiscent of They Will Return. "Dead Man's Shadow" is far catchier with its folkish guitar melody. Ditto on "Holy Symphony of War" with another bracing and catchy guitar line. "Wings of Blackening" is like a steamroller of melodic death/thrash with some excellent leads. "Outremer" is another insanely catchy track, one of my favorites here. The rest of the album is quite uniformly excellent.

This is all par for the course for this excellent band, one of the most talented in this entire genre. While my favorite album from them still remembers their second They Will Return, I truly enjoyed this, even moreso than its predecessor The Black Waltz. Kalmah are generally reliable for their songwriting skill and fine musicianship, and here you have both in spades with one of the very best melodic death offerings of 2008.

Verdict: Win [8/10]
(still I can walk over you)

http://www.kalmah.com/

No comments: