2004 sees this State side release of a cold Finnish melodeath band called
Immortal Souls. Recorded at the ever popular Sonic Pump studios the album will leave speakers desperately holding on for life hehe!
Cut from the same Melodeath cloth as bands like Kalmah, Mors Principium Est,
Omnium Gatherum and Children Of Bodom.
The difference is the concentration on melody and the more Powermetal strains of Melodeath. But being Melodeath the vocals are a gritty growl that any heavy handed death fan could love while the music would pull in your
Helloween "Dark Ride" era fans.
The surprising thing is that this is only a four piece band. It sounds much bigger than that to me. You have Jupe Hakola on the skins, A. Sarkioja on vox and bass, E.Sarkioja on lead and rhythm guitars, and Pete Loisa on Rhythm Guitar.
This album was originally released in
Europe last year through Fear Dark Records and has finally found it's way here via a license agreement though America's own FaceDown Records.
Everything about the album is suggestive of the cold Finnish land they hail from. The title, the songs, and the metal they make. Although i find the album much more positive, lyrically, than many other melodeath bands.
Darkness but not devoid of hope, struggle but not devoid of strength, painful but not devoid of joy.
Yes a very ironic band to say the least!
The music is killer too. There are no added keys to this album but it sounds so damn clean you'd think there were keys filling it out somehow. I think from that you could gather the production/sound of the album is top notch, like I mentioned before, being recorded at Sonic Pump.
The songs are diverse and each stand out from the other....the only one that i didn't really care much for was the clean vocal track
"Man Of Sorrow". It has some good moments but is not that strong and is an attempt at a ballad, although heavy most of the way through. The clean vocals are sung well by guest vocalist Kimmo Pulkinen, it's the music itself backing his sections that i don't care for. Otherwise the song is cool and has a great melody line guitar lick that is very catchy.
Still it's a minor flaw to an otherwise kick ass album!
So any fan of the aforementioned bands will certainly dig this one. Add another great band to the burgeoning scene of MeloDeath music.
As always a trip to the band's web site and the label's web site will give you cool photo's, bio's, and some songs to hear before you buy!
Try and catch them live...i hear they are freaking awesome!
Written by
David Sunday, March 21, 2004
Show all reviews by DavidRatingsDavid: 8.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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