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 And the drums go on...and on...and on...- |
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Korven Kuningas brings you Korpiklaani in a rather serious shell. The band has put a lot of their fun, lively sounding creations off to the side and have brought us this album comprised of more serious sounding tracks. While this wouldn't be such a bad idea, and isn't the first serious folk metal album to be recorded, it is easily one of the most dismissed in the band's discography, and for good reason. While it isn't as fun and exciting as Tales Along This Road was, Korven Kuningas is still a fascinating album. Much of the album sounds as if it were recorded in a fantastical world that never heard of the "uumpa" style that seems to have taken the folk metal genre by storm. Instead, this is an album you can simply kick back and relax with, or have a pint or two if you wish. Songs like "Tapporauta" and "Northern Fall" will put you in the mood to grab your best animal vestments, while "Shall We Take A Turn?" and other such folk-dancing songs will make you want to grab a partner and do a jig. Of course, as the album goes on, it'll be hard to dance when the violins pretty much repeat the same not eas they do on that track, as well as "Paljon On Koskessa Kivia". The album has a number of surprisingly good tracks, such as those mentioned above. Fans looking for the older Korpiklaani sound will find joy in the song "Keep On Galloping", as well as the bonus track "Nuolet Nomalan", which translates into "Rabbit Arrows". But, even though that is the single, and is moreso what fans would expect, the real stand out song on this release is easily "Gods On Fire", a well sung acoustic ballad. "Suden Joiku" is also a nice change of pace, utilizing singing during the chorus moreso then the harsher vocals, relying on the folk music, bagpipes and jouhikko instruments moreso then a metal melody to set the tone of the song, giving a nice, yet somewhat sorrowful, tribal/folk feeling to the entire track. But, the biggest drawback to this album is that, if you're not into the serious side of folk, you will probably hate it. It also doesn't help that the title track, "Korven Kuningas", clocks in at over twenty minutes and is just an instrumental. The song probably ends at about five minutes after some grunting since after that it is only a simple drum beat that seems to be looped for over fifteen minutes straight, so there's no point of waiting for some kind of explosive ending to this album. So it all depends on your taste. While the title track on the album will more then likely be skipped due to it's length and the fact that it doesn't really do much for the album anyhow, many of the songs on here are rather enjoyable and will definitely be your music of choice at your next D&D gathering. Come into this album without expectations of zaniness and the now growing cliche' marks of folk metal's sounds, then this is an experimental album from Korpiklaani that should be checked out. |
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Physical copy purchased for review with personal funds.
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