Cool title. Cool album.
Finland is quickly becoming a byword for quality metal. Finnish band
Morian are clearly willing and able participants in this fast forming tradition.
The advance single '
Away From The Sun' which we described on the site some weeks ago as "densely constructed, beautifully crafted, epic in scale and poignantly melodic", turns out to be representative of the full album.
Producer Hilli Hilesmaa is probably best known for his work with 69 Eyes and HIM. His darkly gothic, heavily textured style, elegantly lightened by an ever present piano, suits
Morian down to the ground.
It's a symphonic metal / melodic metal / gothic rock meld that succeeds in not being hidebound by any individual pigeonhole.
Janne Siekkenin's tuneful growls and grunts have a loud metallic ring, but equally, he's just as capable of clearing his throat and soaring like a seasoned rock vocalist, occasionally within the confines of the same song. Eg.
'Flak Jacket'.
At first listen many tracks sound cut and recut from the same piece of cloth, adorned with recycled riffs and born again drum patterns.
That's simply because there is little variation in Hilesmaa's production style. It takes several spins for most these tracks to separate into individual entities, but eventually they do.
The tracks that carve out their own identity fastest are the industrially inclined heavyweight,
'Recoil', the light on its feet, pop gothic '
Warmonger's Ball', the downright sinister
'Firewalker' and the powerful, hooktastic '
Legion Of Two'.
Closer '
Remains' slows the pace and turns down the tension. The nearest thing to rock on the album. There's a hint there of just how talented and versatile this band is.
It'll be interesting to see what path they follow.
Written by
Brian Saturday, July 7, 2007
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