Till Death Unites Us

Go to Amazon.com and go to any of the Norther Till Death Unites Us full-length pages. Scroll down and what seems to be either one of the page's standout reviews? A review from yours truly from nearly six years ago. Holy cunt that's a while ago, and I have no problem leaving it up there as to remind myself that tastes can change for anything.

The same polished production is once more used to define Norther's crystalline sound. That's crystalline in terms of clear mixing, loudness, and booming, aimless angst. The guitar tone has been touched-up to give it a fatter feel with more sustain, which helps the mindless riffing going on in practically every song. Nice way to mix it up with the same rehashed ideas as before, kusipääs. The melodramatic, hammy formula moves further into modern metal territory in terms of heaviness, but the same flair-filled, extravagant leads coupled with sturdy sounding riffs isn't going anywhere. The soaring harmonies of "The End Of Our Lives", the crushing plumpness of "Everything", or the hostility of "Fuck You" - none of it has any soul. That's the main complaint - nothing on here is worth anything at all. Poor songs with the exact same structure, the same poorly thought arrangements, the same gimmicky attitude, and the same power metal-slanted melodic death tag to encompass all of the music's shittiness.

Tony Hallio's last effort with Norther shows no improvement whatsoever. He can be relied upon to drum for the sake of keeping pace, and for that much he meets the standard. He's replaceable, as well as the cold kit he sat behind up to this point. His glossy crashing and tin snares will not be missed. Lindroos I'd put in the exact same category as the other founding member that bailed and showed no improvement and no variation in his vocals since the very beginning. The man can be relied upon to do desiccated, strained, shallow screams, much in the same way that a fucking baby can be relied upon to breathe on its own. The man is also easily replaceable, both as a vocalist and as a guitarist. Lindroos and Ranta had their moments on the previous three albums (the former two more than the third), but there's almost nothing at all on this album that'd constitute these two playing all-around well-crafted riffs, solos, or harmonies.

Ranta's clean vocals are featured prominently on three songs: "Omen", "Alone In The End", and "Wasted Years". Their pukey, Val Kilmer likeness is not without some form of praise, but it won't be given on behalf of "Alone In The End" and "Wasted Years". Both of these songs are the same tepid garbage that the band has been spewing for the whole album, and the cleans are an added slap in the face. They're awkward and ill-fitting with these two songs.

What Ranta's low, warm cleans need is a gothic type of song that is solely built around a dreary melody and chorus that'll bring out the passion in such a voice - "Omen" is that song. Of all the bashing that this album deserves, I still have a soft spot for this very song after all these years. I don't care for its distant hints of sounding like "Nemo" by Nightwish, nor do I care about how simplistic, poppy, and ultra-tame it is while trying to remain harsh and ballsy. I don't care about any of that because Kristian Ranta's clean vocals during the chorus are soothing as all hell. The lyrics are appallingly bad, as they are on the rest of the album, but to hear his cleans properly utilized is another one of Norther's high moments of sugary sweetness that I can't help but love.

Hallio bails immediately after this album, Lindroos bails after the next album, Ranta needs to bail and start writing competent vocal lines, Koskinen needs to bail and hound Jari Mäenpää, and Planman needs to bail and do session (if that) for revolving Finnish bands. At this point, no one needed to stay in Norther. There was nothing keeping this band together, as the passion that had some kind of kindling was ashes by Death Unlimited. "Omen" is nice little track, but holy hell is this album a bomb.

The production issues from the previous album have been rectified, but new problems quickly surface regarding songwriting and memorability. The paper-thin distortion of Death Unlimited has been replaced by the thickest guitar sound the band has ever committed to disc. No more squealy leads either, as it all really comes together on certain cuts such as "Die" and "Throwing My Life Away". Planman is seriously dialed back here, and that leaves the guitars alone to maintain interest during the heart of most songs (God forbid Toni Hallio do anything interesting on the kit).

The listener is still on the receiving end of a cross-section of the melodic death and power metal genres here, and for that can honestly do a lot worse. The riffs take advantage of the beefed-up production and while delivering more driving, headbang-worthy moments, also tend to devolve into a generic chug and recycle many of the same licks. Listen to the very beginning of both "Drowning" and "Everything"; that lick appears in almost every song. Conversely, the solo work remains top-notch. I constantly find myself skipping large parts of some of these tracks just to get to the obligatory solo section. Still, only a single keyboard solo on the entire album? Really guys? Planman is really sleepwalking through this album, and it seriously guts the atmosphere.

Lindroos' parched scream is functional enough here. His inflection is deeper and has more variety than on Norther's previous albums. Ranta makes his proper debut on clean vocals during "Omen", and it sounds pretty good. He also contributes cleans on "Wasted Years", a track devoted to Ranta's then newly deceased brother. It is therefore a shame that his performance there is a little less sure of itself, more along the lines of the experimentation on Solution 7. The lyrics have to reach an all-time high of immaturity and ridiculousness here. I understand not writing in your native tongue and all but, wow. Jukka remains underappreciated, as he has some cool standout moments such as the bass-driven breakdown in the middle of "Drowning" that really hails back to the awesome outro of "The Cure" from the previous LP. "The End of Our Lives" is also a functional enough closer, very close to the opener in terms of style and substance.

However, most of these tracks just aren't that interesting when all is said and done. For example "Norther" is interesting in a couple of ways in that it features lyrics that consist only of previous song titles along with some of the better riffs. This is an obvious nod to Megadeth's "Victory", as Norther are definitely huge fans of Mustaine. Sadly it remains content to just spin its tires for the entire duration, never really going anywhere interesting. "Everything" is probably second only to "Omen" in the amount of emotion it exudes, but without much input from Planman it just gets tiring, despite one of the aforementioned great solos. I was also a bit confounded by the selection of "Scream" as the album's single. With basically no keyboards, clean vocals, or much of anything interesting, it hardly makes a case for Till Death Unites Us on its own. "Omen" would have been a better choice, featuring the best keyboard sections and enterprising vocal lines.

Norther really had an opportunity to squelch the naysayers here. The popularity of this sub-genre was at an all time high, with Western audiences finally fully aware of Scandinavia's melodic metal output. It really just wasn't meant to be, as the band would continue on a downward spiral through their dissolution in 2012. The band's final gasp of creativity was the No Way Back EP from 2007, so this isn't the end for them, just yet.

(Revised/Updated 2/4/14)

Norther has risen in the ranks of melodic death metal (or power metal with harsh vocals according to this site) in the last few years and with the release of Til Death Unites Us, Norther have found themselves in the middle of the spotlight.

Solution 7 gave us a glimpse of what was to come from this release. What it did was prepared us for the worst – because this album isn’t as near experimental as what most of us thought it was going to be. Til Death Unites Us does deviate from the ABC’s of Norther but it doesn’t deviate too far.

Musically, Norther has put more stress upon the structure and guitar riffs in the music than previously. The guitars sound a bit heavier and the riffs are less “power metal” sounding with big chords (although the cords are present in most of the songs – mostly choruses) and taken towards more of a death metal road. This places a lot of pressure on the keyboards to present us with the melody since neither the singer nor guitars are filling the music. And the keyboards do keep up with the heavy demand. The melodies are catchy and sometimes override the guitars with focus. And there are also so extras hidden in the music that a careful listener can grab. For example, the heartbeat at the end of “Everything” is very cool.

One of the coolest parts of Til Death Unites Us is the multiple moments when the music stops and lets the listener catch glimpses of the bass work. The bass is particularly well done on this album, and these little breaks of bass give the music a lot of variety and some interesting moments that catch you off guard.

Vocally, there are a few surprises on board this album. As in the Solution 7 EP there are some clean vocals present, courtesy of guitarist, Kristian Ranta. They aren’t as relevant on this release as they were on the EP. They appear a couple of times on a couple of songs (“Omen” comes to mind). And they are better done this time around – but they still feel out of place. Petri Lindroos’ vocals fit the band’s style pretty well and sometimes the clean vocals do – but most of the time they seem to come from left field.

Norther has never been great lyric writers. I have never expected them to be. This is no exception to the rule. The lyrics are a lot of talk of hell, hate, and violence but there are a couple of songs that stand out in the mix. “Norther” is a song with lyrics made up from other Norther song titles. So if you are a long time Norther fan this is pretty interesting to try and pick them out.

Overall, this is a descent release from a band that is constantly placed behind other bands in this style. There are a few tricks in the sleeves but overall this is consistent and dedicated. Norther are on the way to good things and Til Death Unites Us just furthers them on their way.

Songs to check out: Throwing My Life Away, Norther, Fuck You.