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 More serious then light hearted drinking songs.- |
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When the band decided to change their name from Shaman to Korpiklaani, the band basically exploded into the Metal world with their brand of Folk Metal. Over the years, the band has given fans of the style a good amount of great albums, but with the recent few releases seemed to step away from the fun over-the-top drinking songs with more serious lyrical content, and often still about drinking. While none of the newer albums can hold a flame to the jolly atmosphere of Tales Along this Road, the releases have all stayed solid, though perhaps not as strong. Now that the stereotype laid out by such acts as Finntroll have basically died out, fans seem to be more welcoming to the serious side of Korpiklaani, and it's just in time as the band issues Ukon Wacka, their seventh full-length album, and fully solidifying the new approach that has been building for quite some time. Ukon Wacka is a superb release from the band that really captures the more serious side of the band, but throws a few upbeat and rather fun tracks the listener's way. It's also one of the band's more diverse offerings. While the band maintains their signature Folk Metal approach, some of the songs here just feel a little more obscure then others, or just seem a little out of character. "Päät Pois Tai Hirteen (Peer Günt cover), for example, pretty much starts the album off to solidy what the sound of the recording will be, though the song isn't the band's. It takes some guts to put a cover track so close to the start of the album, as it's not really a fair representation of the group and their abilities, but in the long run the song is catchy and rather light compared to the rest of the recorded material here. You also have "Lonkkaluut" which finds the band bringing the music to a really heavy sound at the end, perhaps to represent a severe drunken haze, but the distortion used and the music itself comes off rather crushing in a sense, far from the band's just-heavy-enough Folk sound. It also feels awkward that the song's ending vocals are a random scream. The song itself isn't bad, but this very random moment just doesn't work with the flow of the song at all. These are just the first two oddities on this recording, and there's plenty more where they come from, and they all run the gambit of being entertaining or just bland and awkward. While Korpiklaani can put together a good serious album, the main lure of the band is their more light hearted drinking songs, and sadly it seems like there are only two, and one isn't as light hearted as you would hope. "Tuoppi Oltta", translated to "A Pint of Beer", is a decent song that might sound better when you're already at a tipsy state, but the start of the song and some of the Folk influences throughout feel out of place, more like they would belong on a pirate-themed Metal act like Alestorm then anything else. It's not bad though, but it's nothing too fantastic either. But, "Tequila" is the song that really brings the lighte hearted fun, and is also the token single off the album. This track, however, winds up being poor, as the song completely derails the folk influences they incorporate into their material by presenting this short, fast paced, and overall catchy as Hell song with such a strong Mexican and Spanish atmosphere. It's really sad since, out of all the tracks, this is the one song that really has a lot of energy behind it, and you can tell the band had a lot of fun writing. In the context of the album, it doesn't fit, but really it's a fun song that probably would have been better served as an EP then part of a frothy full-length release. But, really, this is the worst of them all, and it's a bitter/sweet thing since this is easily the most enjoyable track, but it's just so far out from the rest of the album that it clashes. While some tracks may be a little bland, there's just no denying that Ukon Wacka is a well done album. Each song on here is as catchy as the last, though some moreso, such as the aforementioned "Tequila", but it sll basically stays within the same common musical ground and flows smoothly from one track to another. The production is great and the guitars really have this nice heaviness to them with the bass audible just enough to really make an impact on the recording, the drums at the right level, and the vocals are performed well with a nice, yet subtle range. All of this works well to make songs like "Lonkkaluut" stand out. "Ukon Wacka" offers a little more variety, having a much slower pace that makes it feel different like "Tequila", but does not clash as bad, though the deeper, more spiritual singing on the slowest portions of the song do sound a little awkward and tend to get on the boring side after a while. There's also no denying that "Vaarinpolkka" has a good deal of energy to it, being a much faster song and a little more light-hearted then the rest of the material on here, quickly becoming a warm welcome to the fans that had been with the band since the start, though the track is only an instrumental. Again, it has the same kind of Folk atmosphere that "Tuoppi Oltta" has, and, again, is another somewhat awkward moment, but it still works out great and is really just a lot of fun before closing with a very moving Folk piece that speaks more from a nature voice then anything else that makes for one of the strongest closings to a Korpiklaani album before crashing right into a faster paced track with varying levels of speed and energy. Ukon Wacka makes for another fine Korpiklaani album of fine Folk Metal that shows the band aging considerably well. While most of the fun, light hearted material is still vacant on the recording, the band has incorporated a little more then on their last outing, and it really comeks off as their most mature, yet fan-oriented release to date. Sure, some of the elements of the recording may sound awakard, and the flagship drinking song feels completely out of place given the Folk-atmosphere established, but even that song is great, and much of the album is composed well with enough catchy melodies to have the listener coming back. it's just sad that much of the recording is more laid back and seems to lack any real energy by the band outside a few tracks, which seems to cause a strong focus on the music being heavy, but not heavy enough that it feels like the material should be faster. In a sense, that amount of distortion of bass in the guitars really helps the recording out, but still leaves a gap with more variety outside of mainly mid-tempo songs of a serious nature. Either way, as far as Folk Metal goes, there's no denying that Ukon Wacka by Korpiklaani is a strong release that deserves to be checked out. |
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Digital review copy of this release provided by: Nuclear Blast Records.
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