For the Revolution

Sometimes you come across something that makes you scratch your head in bewilderment. For instance, Kalmah's 5th album "For the Revolution" having a 70% review. In all honesty, I just cant believe it. This is Kalmah's grand opus. Everything comes together here. Say what you want about the production issues; I get it. But this is their most melodic album and in my honest opinion, their most serious sounding album. Coming off the heels of "The Black Waltz," you can tell they decided to go back to their early sound instead of the full on death metal with some hints of melody that was their previous album. Thank god they did.

The thrasher of the title track rips from beginning to end. A welcome choice to start off the album. Pekka's screeches are much more pronounced than the growling vocals he used back on "The Black Waltz; not to say his growls are gone, but I always preferred the screeches. Adding in choir and gang shouts was a positive I think. Considering this album is sort of a concept regarding dethroning the higher ups, war and well, revolutions, it actually gives off that "people are rising up against the tyrant" mood. "Ready for Salvation," is a slow balladlike song that brings to mind "For My Nation" from their second album. Some people will think it's a plodding filler but it works. The haunting keys that dazzle in the back with Antti's harmonic solo give the listener a calming sense before moving onto the more fast paced "Towards the Sky." Marco Sneck really shines on this album compared to their previous one. The key melodies in "Towards the Sky," and in the catchiest intros I've ever heard, "Outremer" really outdones his previous work. I have to keep gushing because I didn't mention their greatest song in the album and one of my personal favorite Kalmah songs, "Dead Man's Shadow." THIS is what Kalmah is. The sorrowful keys in the background of the song gives me chills every single listen. The folky riff before the ripping solo, Pekka's agonized growls; this song encompasses everything good about melodic death metal.

I don't think I'll ever understand the low rating for the album. A filler album? None here. Even lesser songs like "Like a Slave" and "Coward" have moments when you just can't stop tapping your feet or nodding your head; their catchiest and most mature album to date. I really wish they would've released something similar. "12 Gauge" as wonderful of an album it was just didn't have the melancholy I enjoyed so much from this one.

What’s up with the pacified drum sound? There’s hardly any punch to it at all. It’s got the patterns, blasts, and pummeling drum bass, but there’s no power behind it. Compare it to the thick, thrashy (at times) riffs, booming bass, and the high keys. It just sounds so flat and weak in comparison, even if it’s clear and well-produced for what it is. It’s just one of the things that I feel gives For The Revolution a less-than-stellar appeal among Kalmah’s albums. That and the docile metal they put forth have none of the zest that truly made the band a vicious force of Finnish melodic death.

The first five songs are good, I’ll give it that. As an EP containing those five songs, I would feel more enthusiastic for this release as a parts great than the sum / sum as great as the parts deal. Either way would work, but as it stands it’s flawed and mostly unremarkable. These first five songs are enjoyable in the same way melodic death with some meaty riffs, flashy leads, and a properly arranged rhythm section can be pleasing. It’s Kalmah, but without creating anything with more purpose than the straightforwardness they churned out here. It feels lazy, even though their performances are rapid and enthused. Their capabilities to properly arrange synthy keys (way less astonishing than Pasi Hiltula’s work on the first three albums and Eternal Tears Of Sorrow), the Kokko brothers’ elegant harmonies and devastating riffs, and a tight rhythm haven’t totally died. The compositions themselves, however, are lacking and do the most to bring this album down.

With an unblemished, fitted production (drums aside), it’s a shame that after the ballad-like “Ready for Salvation” the album’s momentum diminishes. The rest of the album feels weary and uneventful, no matter how extensive the playing style of Antti Kokko. Pekka’s thick growling is also beginning to feel unvaried and lethargic. But it’s not even him to blame, it’s the value of the compositions themselves. For example, there’s all that keyboard work involved and not one bit of is notable. The band’s former keyboardist, Pasi Hiltula, had some of the most entrancing, marvelous, and atmospheric melodies of the Finnish melodic death scene. Here Marco Sneck just plays high, synthy melodies with no real character behind them. The same can be said about the album – lots of energy, but not a whole lot of appeal.

This one’s hard to keep around. It’s a Kalmah too mediocre for their own standards. If you want to twist that as being great by their peers’ standards, go ahead, but there’s enough fervent material before this to listen to instead. Melodic death for the sake of existence has been long played out, so more of it from a band of Kalmah’s caliber is pathetic.

To this point Kalmah have established themselves as one of the very best bands of the Finnish melodeath scene, if not THE best band, edging out peers like Norther and Children of Bodom. With their 5th opus For the Revolution, they are only out to reinforce that fact with yet another excellent effort.

The album boasts a killer Tico Tico studio production, seamlessly blending the band's signature heavy use of synths into the standard instruments. The title track opens the album, pure Kalmah reminiscent of They Will Return. "Dead Man's Shadow" is far catchier with its folkish guitar melody. Ditto on "Holy Symphony of War" with another bracing and catchy guitar line. "Wings of Blackening" is like a steamroller of melodic death/thrash with some excellent leads. "Outremer" is another insanely catchy track, one of my favorites here. The rest of the album is quite uniformly excellent.

This is all par for the course for this excellent band, one of the most talented in this entire genre. While my favorite album from them still remembers their second They Will Return, I truly enjoyed this, even moreso than its predecessor The Black Waltz. Kalmah are generally reliable for their songwriting skill and fine musicianship, and here you have both in spades with one of the very best melodic death offerings of 2008.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The corrupt and vile political figurehead has reigned long enough, and the people have decided to take matters into their own hands. Bands of rebellious citizens gather in the early morning, rifles and Molotov cocktails ready, and hit the streets as a full blown riot; spreading anarchy and chaos in their wake. Law enforcement, caught completely off guard, scramble to suppress the uprising, but to no avail. Kalmah's '08 offering, For the Revolution, would have us take up these makeshift arms and join the revolt, blindly sacrificing our lives so that our country might break free from the shackles of political tyranny. As the opener raced on I was all too happy to oblige, rushing to my nearest gun shop.

Then it ended, and with it the unshakable, monumental level of badass to which I'd ascended. A buzzkill. Rather than continuing this fictions revolt, Kalmah instead deviates and shifts the tone of the album more towards preaching the supposed fallacies of modern man, child, and adolescent alike; how this current generation are warmongering, ignorant – you get the idea, surely. As if the tone shift wasn't enough of a bummer, the musical quality takes a leap of equal magnitude downward. A bait-and-switch of truly frustrating proportions.

Undoubtedly, For the Revolution sought to be more melodic than any previous Kalmah release. This is all too clear with the newfound emphasis of both keyboards and slower, more harmonized guitar riffs, as opposed to the fast, thrashy riffs and background-centered keyboards common in the earlier works. Dead Man's Shadow, Towards the Sky, and Coward are perfect examples of the aforementioned. Why exactly is this bad? In itself it isn't, except for the previously mentioned bait-and-switch tactic used after the title track, and the clear downward progression of musical quality.

The major problem is that only three of the nine songs offer anything memorable. The title track, Holy Symphony War, and Coward put forth any effort to grab your attention; the other six are merely songs on an album. Catchy choruses and that signature group singing of the song title served as perfect hooks in The Black Waltz, take songs such as To The Gallows, With Terminal Intensity, and Time Takes Us All; completely memorable. Here, I have to put forth effort to remember aspects of every song but the three mentioned. Not a good sign, nor a good feeling. What happened to cause this sudden decrease in memorability I've not the slightest idea, but Kalmah couldn't structure their songs to the nearest armory, let alone as fist-pumping anthems for a revolution.

Musicianship wise; however, Kalmah's got it together as good as ever. The Brothers Kokko are at their top with guitars, the bass is clearly defined, and percussion and keyboards are spot on, albeit more flashy and noticeable than ever before. The only negative is Pekka Kokko's voice this time around. Take the vocals from 'Waltz, now add a greater black influence and a rougher edge, and that's what you have. Again, it doesn't help at all in the memorable department, as some lines are completely indiscernible, and boarder on downright annoying on Dead Man's Shadow. The feeling I get from Pekka's vocal performance now is that he's trying needlessly harder to deviate away from Children of Bodom, which they themselves did perfectly fine without any effort from Kalmah's part!

Its a damn shame really, falling into the dreaded awesome-opener-shitty-everything-else album structure. For the Revolution certainly isn't going to be starting any revolutions anytime soon, at least not as a full length, although there are a couple good songs to be had. As mentioned earlier, the title track, Holy Symphony War, and Coward will satisfy any Kalmah fan, but that's not saying much when they realize that still leaves 60% of the album as lackluster. So then, readers, what do you call a half hour of five men playing near the best of their capabilities, but not actually producing anything meaningful? Hanging out.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, and whatever other cliché phrases we can throw in, For The Revolution is a professionally recorded hangout session. Sounds cool, but nothing is really being accomplished.

For the Revolution stands out from the rest of Kalmah's catalogue for a number of reasons. This has to be the most melodic of all of the band's albums. There is a stronger emphasis on epic note progressions and keyboards, forcing Sneck to adapt and deliver his most memorable performance making up for the lackluster synth outing on The Black Waltz. The overall atmosphere and thinner production hails back to the group's earlier albums such as Swamplord, making For the Revolution an attempt at a "best of both worlds" approach.

Personally, I look at Kalmah's career as two separate entities. Pasi Hiltula's departure in 2004 signified a major shift in the band's sound and triggered the birth of the second chapter. Considering the consistent quality of Kalmah's output, For the Revolution definitely makes its home on one of the lower rungs of the stepladder of quality. The production throws a number of red flags almost immediately, featuring a trebly, faceless guitar sound and plastic drums. The keyboards are almost universally upfront, generally serving as the nucleus that the melodies revolve around until the requisite solo section arrives. Whether or not that approach maintains interest for the entire song depends on which track you are listening to. There are definitely some real winners here, and when For the Revolution gets cooking, it really is a force to be reckoned with. "Holy Symphony of War" and "Towards the Sky" both lead the charge, featuring a near-endless progression of epic, driving melodies that maintain a nice balance with the guitars and raspy vocals.

Conversely, the final third of For the Revolution fails to inspire fully. Only "Like a Slave" can go head-to-head with the aforementioned material. The remaining tracks, save for maybe "Wings of Blackening" all follow a pretty familiar formula, usually turning heads initially with triumphant melodies and keyboard lines. Once into the heart of many of these songs, however, they begin to lose their grip around the listener's throat due to the void left by the lackluster guitars. The solos are played with zeal but the thin, squealy lead tone doesn't do the brothers Kokko many favors in that regard. Pekka's shift to his older, raspier vocal style is an interesting one, but I feel that the guttural roars are more appropriate and are performed better on his part.

Sneck, while still inferior to Hiltula, manages to summon a potent atmosphere at times, despite the mix leaving the keyboards sounding exceedingly thin. I am, however, not a big fan of his soloing style. His solo lead sounds tacky as he runs predictable scales and fails to deliver anything close to the quality of the solo on, for example, "To the Gallows". Kusmin is a pretty good drummer, with some short controlled blasting and thrash patterns making up the majority of the backbone of the rhythm section. It is a shame his kit got so butchered during the mixing process. The bass drum is just a dry, dull thump that clashes sonically with the already weak guitars. It really does a lot more damage than it should, and For the Revolution suffers mightily for it.

Nearly all of the faults present here were rectified by the time 12 Gauge came around, so I have to give the band credit for taking the criticisms to heart. This is definitely an album that can't live up to it's potential due to tertiary factors (the mix, in this case) dragging it down. Check out the aforementioned killer tracks; isolated, they are still well worth your time. As a whole experience, however, For the Revolution is a disappointment.


(Revised/Updated 1/10/14)

The comparison is practically inevitable of course, but for the purpose of this review is necessary; while people will deny it until they are blue in the face, the fact remains that Children of Bodom started something in the late 90s. As much as people will defend bands like Skyfire, Norther and of course Kalmah as being more than Bodom copycats, it cannot be denied that the early 2000s saw a suspicious amount of young Finnish bands playing the previously unheard combination of power and melodic death metal with black-ish vocal shrieks and keyboard acrobatics.

The important part is how they all reacted to their own relative success, how they grew and developed in comparison to one another and of course the band they drew their inspiration from. On one hand there is Norther, seeming intent on following Bodom to the bank with their increasingly melodic and simplistic style, while Kalmah have stuck to their original sound and been content to develop it in their own directions.

2006's 'The black waltz' marked a particular shift for the band towards an identity of their own. Pekka Kokko for the most part ditched his high-pitched shriek in favour of a guttural death metal roar that, while a little more monotone, added a new flavour to the band usually not heard in their particular niche. The music also shifted more away from the constant high speed of the early CDs to incorporate more gloomy midtempo moments. A drop in pace in this subgenre is often the sign of a band losing their inspiration, but the Kokko brothers managed that rarity that is engaging mid-paced melodeath with considerable aplomb.

'For the revolution' is less of a leap into new territory than its predecessor, but rather exhibits a good combination of the styles Kalmah have played to date. The newer elements from 'The black waltz' are meshed with more overtly Bodom-like early career moments on a nippy little 43-minute CD that is pure enjoyment from top to bottom.

The high-pitched vocals have more of a role to play this time, and are split more evenly with the growls, which makes for a more varied vocal performance. Keyboard player Marco Sneck enjoys a more prominent role on his 2nd CD with the band, with his role adjusting to suit the individual song instead of just hanging around in the background or having uninspired segments needlessly spread across the songs. "Dead man's shadow" sees him perform thrilling symphonic, almost folky, accompaniments to the guitar parts while at other times he makes the occasion dash to center stage for some shredding solos. However the star of the show is, as always, lead guitarist Antti Kokko, who plays his usual scintillating solos and near-constant lead parts with the expected precision and variety.

Enticing power metal tracks like "Towards the sky" mix well with more melancholy numbers like the mid-CD ballad "Ready for salvation", and while it is less of a bold step than the preceding CD, Kalmah have produced yet another fine example of melodic death/power metal, and continue to prove that the genre still has room for development and creativity.

A musical analogy I have always been fond of is Devin Townsend's assessment of his 'Physicist' CD as a step to the side rather than forwards – a combination, and thus summation, of the varied styles of his career to date. Kalmah have of course had a less varied output over the years, but the sentiment certainly rings true when listening to 'For the revolution'. The CD's short running time only leaves the listener hungry for their next release, and there is no surer sign of success than that.

(Originally written for http://www.metalcdratings.com/)