Review by Fernando on January 18, 2024.

After 2020, when Korgonthurus, the original band of Corvus, the former second vocalist of Horna, and Finnish underground stalwart Kryth released their long awaited third album Kuolleestasyntynyt, I was waiting with bated breath for their next full length, and after a brief detour with a commemorative EP, the band finally unleashed their fourth opus, Jumalhaaska, and once again through Woodcut Records.

For those unfamiliar, Korgonthurus play black metal, and while they do fit the basic descriptions of Finnish black metal, they’re among the most distinct bands, in very simple terms that frankly don’t do them justice. The band’s particular style of black metal is both depressive and furious. They perfectly blend bleak atmospheres with ultra violent brutality, and this new record, is the band’s conscious effort to display all the strengths of their past work with something new, and suffice to say, this was one of the best black metal records of 2023, and one I’m still kicking myself for not covering as soon as it dropped.

The biggest difference of this record with their outstanding 2020 LP is the song lengths. This is the band’s longest album to date and on top of that, it’s only 4 songs and all are over 10 minutes. Now some people are rightfully salivating over this, and longtime fans of this band probably delighted as well since the band’s debut album was also a monstrously long, 2 track record, but I can also understand the massive entry barrier of a 55 minute record of 10 plus minute songs. However, and unlike the band’s first album, Jumalhaaska features the band’s more recent musical developments and like I said earlier this album is the band combining all of their past work into a single, cohesive opus and they certainly succeed. The songs, while long are a constant display of absolute melancholy and dread, with brutality and speed, you can easily get swept away, and by the time they end you realized not a single minute was wasted, even when the band slow down, with elaborated sections of just clean guitars and subtle bass, the music is constantly engaging, they take you through all these soundscapes and their mastery of atmosphere and aggression is without peer.

In regards to the technical aspects, the band are still featuring a clean production, as it has been the case since 2016’s Vuohen Siunaus, but the band have never lost the essential rawness of black metal, and with this record, they’ve gotten pretty damn good at using the clean production to their advantage as you can hear the hate and despair of every instrument. And on that note, I’ll never get tired of singing Corvus’ praises as a vocalist, the man is simply unmatched when it comes to his wailing vocals that perfectly encapsulates the band’s wretched and desolate sound, even now, he still sounds as rabid and demented as ever, and I can’t imagine this band without his voice or his excellent guitar skills. And while Corvus is the most noticeable member, let’s not discard the rest of the band, as this is now they’re most stable lineup and where able to make it unto a new record. Kryth is of course also unmatched as a drummer, and he keeps getting better with each release, Insanus Xul is a masterful riff machine who perfectly keeps up with Corvus’ leads and melodies, and Incisura ended up being a better fit for the band as a bassist than a guitarist during his first stint. Overall, this is the band’s strongest lineup and the results on record speak for themselves, twice in a row, plus an EP.

While I used to recommend specific songs to check, since this record is only four songs, and all are excellent, and are essential pieces of the whole experience I’ll just say listen to this album from front to back in full, as there’s just so much to marvel at, which may sound strange given how relentless and unforgiving this music is, and indeed, this is pure black metal at its zenith, this record sounds like it is the end of all things, and we’re about to be subsumed in eternal darkness. It may be a lot to take in and I would only recommend this record to the most seasoned of extreme metal veterans, but it's still an astounding record to check, because it’s the best Korgonthurus record yet, and it has everything you would want in black metal.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 13, 2024.

In my humble opinion, Korgonthurus are not among the most important Finnish black metal bands. But this does not say much in a country where each and every inhabitant runs his own project (at least one!). Moreover, Korgonthurus do not lack ambitions and so they present Jumalhaaska (“Goddess”), an album with a rather unusual design. Four songs shape a work that clocks in at 55 minutes. I understand this configuration as a kind of challenge for the listeners. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against bombastic song lengths in general. The 14 minutes of 'Det Som En Gang Var' are brilliant, the 20 minutes of Pest’s “Daudafærd” are perfect and Venom’s “At War With Satan” is the diabolic father of them all. But if you only offer little operas instead of songs, it is sometimes somewhat difficult to get access to an album. Jumalhaaska marks no exception in this context. Its songs are multi-layered, not progressive, but with a lot of variations, tempo shifts, changes in intensity and different atmospheres, even though an omnipresent, sinister undertone builds the fundament of the album.

Jumalhaaska, this is the good news, does not fall victim to an annoying number of boring parts. In fact, there is only one sequence which fails to meet the usual quality standard. I am speaking of the calm and expressionless introduction of 'Marraskehrä' that is contributed by a non-charismatic narrator. Anyway, if I ignore this more or less useless part, Korgonthurus offer 52 minutes of true Northern black metal. The material does not take care for catchy sections (and sometimes I wish it did), but it reflects the black souls of the musicians. Thus, the musical offering comes close to the true spiritual core of the subgenre. All chapters are filled to the brim with ominous, devastating, melancholic and desperate parts, while the lead vocalist contributes hate, misanthropy and total dedication. The songs appear as a continuation and extension of the title track of Kuolleestasyntynyt, the band’s output from 2020. This piece already had a very interesting, tension-increasing structure. Now the quartet has almost found the balance between complexity and a traceable flow, while it walks the thin line between these poles in a remarkably safe way. Even some surprisingly appearing breaks are well embedded in the overall construction.

The most outstanding element of the production is its solid depth, but it also scores with heaviness, darkness and the fact that everything is well balanced. The guitars do not deliver a single optimistic tone and the fact that they are slightly blurred reinforces the listener's impression of being caught up in a maelstrom of sombre emotions. The artwork is also well done and therefore I come to the conclusion that this output need not fear comparison with other works from the artists' homeland. Of course, it takes some spins to realize the power of the overlong pieces – all their facets want to be discovered and therefore you need time, a more or less isolated room with a proper stereo system and maybe a good drink. And, of course, this album called Jumalhaaska. Honestly speaking, Korgonthurus seem to be on their way to become one of the most relevant units from Suomi.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by Jophelerx on September 4, 2024.

Finland's Battlelore are an interesting group I discovered pretty early on in my metal journey, as in that time around early 2009 they were riding the success of their two biggest albums up to that point, 2007's Evernight and 2008's The Last Alliance. While they'd always been on Napalm Records, they certainly broke through in a more substantial way into the American market around this time, as I remember seeing their albums at Best Buy alongside your Kamelots and Hammerfalls around this time, and after checking out the music videos for "House of Heroes" and "Third Immortal," a friend of mine bought this album and let me rip it to my computer as well. While the harsh vocals make this, at least in theory, a bit less accessible than your typical 2000s power metal fare, which was what my friend and I were primarily into around this time, the symphonic shtick and fixation on Tolkien made this an easy sell for most Europower fans, ourselves included, and perhaps the success of the Lord of the Rings films helped Battlelore to gain traction, though looking at the timeline that should have hit hardest around 2005's Third Age of the Sun, which was the band's first album to release following The Return of the King, and that album really didn't do nearly as well as its 2007 successor. Either way, Battlelore were wildly successful for what amounted to a Finnish gimmick band that brought the "beauty and the beast" style vocals to an audience that was eating up things like After Forever and Epica at the time and were really just in the right place at the right time both thematically and stylistically. I'd say 2008's The Last Alliance was their best album both commercially and in terms of musical quality, but there's definitely a fair amount of nostalgia coloring things for me, so you should certainly evaluate their discography on your own and figure out yourself.

That said, The Last Alliance is a definite step up in terms of budget and production, with everything sounding much bigger and more cinematic than it had on previous albums, particularly the first couple which sounded quite cheap and bedroom-ish. Evernight was quite well-produced too, but to my ears, this one is clearer and a bit more polished, with everything coming through crisply without falling prey to the common modern metal problem of gimping the guitar tone or cranking everything up to 11 until it's difficult to pick out individual elements. In fact, the guitar tone here is definitely thicker and meatier than it would be for a typical power metal album. As I've said, Battlelore isn't *strictly* power metal, but fall more into what I'd call "Tolkien-core" or maybe a better term would be "fantasy-core," part of a wave of quasi-extreme symphonic metal bands that are steeped in fantasy elements, alongside bands like Summoning, Bal-Sagoth, and Turisas, which tend to appeal to a primary power metal audience without being out and out "power metal." Battlelore is probably the tamest of these bands, ensuring they'd have appeal to most of those who can stomach any sort of harsh vocals, as they feature Kaisa Jouhki's soft, ethereal clean vocals to counteract Tomi Mykkänen's yells and growls. In fact, in some songs, like "Guardians" or "Daughter of the Sun," Jouhki's soothing croon stands on its own for much of the song before bringing in Mykkänen for some angry war metal goodness, and while I think that ultimately the two work best in conjunction with each other, I don't think this is a mistake in the context that it's used, as it's always done in softer sections where adding Mykkänen would be overkill.

Jouhki's ability is somewhat limited, though, as she has little range and no power to speak of, certainly no Floor Jansen or Simone Simons in terms of technical ability, but the band clearly knows how to best utilize her, so it's never really an issue. Alongside copious amounts of synths and keyboards, pummeling guitar riffs, and Tomi Mykkänen either barking or occasionally also doing clean vocals, she sounds great, exemplifying the lyrical ambiance of the elves or the Valar in Tolkienian mythology. I should point out that you really need to like synths to like this band because they're often taking lead over the guitars, which often feel more like a part of the rhythm section than anything, providing a nice meaty foundation for the rest of the music to rest on but very rarely taking the spotlight. There's also no insanely charismatic and talented vocalist here for fans of someone like Roy Khan or Hansi Kursch to focus on - in fact, on paper, this really shouldn't work nearly as well as it does, but the band has chops where it's important - namely, the songwriting. Crafting intricate soundscapes whose often over-the-top nature belies the subtlety of the craft responsible for them, this really serves more as a soundtrack for a certain lyrical idea - namely, Tolkien and high fantasy - than a collection of songs, per se.

The only flaw with the band's formula here in my estimation is that some songs can go on a bit long if they stick to one element - either the harsher guitar and male vocal element or the softer symphonic and female vocal counterpart. "Daughter of the Sun" is an example of this, and while it's quite a beautiful piece, I feel it could have been trimmed down as the pacing is quite slow and we get nearly half the song before the placid soft opening is countered with some heavier stuff. However, the song does have a pretty cool section at the end going for it, with Jouhki adding some semi-harsh "whispers" to add to a discordant, evil ambiance, which is a nice touch. I think the album overall is a bit longer than it needs to be as well, though, with 11 songs being a bit more than I need for this style where most songs have little to make them stand out on their own and start to run together after a while. By song 10 or 11 I'm starting to feel like the band is just rehashing the same ideas and milking them a bit more than they're good for, though there are touches here or there that are memorable. Still, most of the band's previous albums coming in around 9 songs and in the 40-45 minute range made more sense and felt like a good fit for the band - imagine a Dragonforce album coming in at 11 songs (before adding in a cover or alternate version), and you'll get what I'm talking about. (Yes, Reaching into Infinity, I'm looking at you.)

Overall, The Last Alliance isn't without its flaws, but we're not talking about a band full of guitar wizardry or vocal acrobatics here - we're talking about Battlelore, and for what the band aims to do I think they accomplish it very well here. For someone looking for a cinematic version of symphonic, beauty-and-the-beast laden fantasy-core, this hits the spot better than most of its competition, and nowadays I still prefer it to most of the limp-wristed, female-fronted symphonic metal scene, as it still retains a bit more of a metal backbone than something like Epica or Nightwish, and has a broader range of focus than just a singular operatic vocalist. It may not do any one thing better than the majority of its competition, but it brings everything together in a way that's bound to appeal to fantasy nerds like me and has quite a bit of charm to it that still feels fresh a decade and a half after its release. If you're curious about this band or interested in symphonic metal that has a bit more of an edge to it than the standard female-fronted fare, The Last Alliance is a fantastic jumping-off point.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Jophelerx on September 4, 2024.

Finland's Battlelore are an interesting group I discovered pretty early on in my metal journey, as in that time around early 2009 they were riding the success of their two biggest albums up to that point, 2007's Evernight and 2008's The Last Alliance. While they'd always been on Napalm Records, they certainly broke through in a more substantial way into the American market around this time, as I remember seeing their albums at Best Buy alongside your Kamelots and Hammerfalls around this time, and after checking out the music videos for "House of Heroes" and "Third Immortal," a friend of mine bought this album and let me rip it to my computer as well. While the harsh vocals make this, at least in theory, a bit less accessible than your typical 2000s power metal fare, which was what my friend and I were primarily into around this time, the symphonic shtick and fixation on Tolkien made this an easy sell for most Europower fans, ourselves included, and perhaps the success of the Lord of the Rings films helped Battlelore to gain traction, though looking at the timeline that should have hit hardest around 2005's Third Age of the Sun, which was the band's first album to release following The Return of the King, and that album really didn't do nearly as well as its 2007 successor. Either way, Battlelore were wildly successful for what amounted to a Finnish gimmick band that brought the "beauty and the beast" style vocals to an audience that was eating up things like After Forever and Epica at the time and were really just in the right place at the right time both thematically and stylistically. I'd say 2008's The Last Alliance was their best album both commercially and in terms of musical quality, but there's definitely a fair amount of nostalgia coloring things for me, so you should certainly evaluate their discography on your own and figure out yourself.

That said, The Last Alliance is a definite step up in terms of budget and production, with everything sounding much bigger and more cinematic than it had on previous albums, particularly the first couple which sounded quite cheap and bedroom-ish. Evernight was quite well-produced too, but to my ears, this one is clearer and a bit more polished, with everything coming through crisply without falling prey to the common modern metal problem of gimping the guitar tone or cranking everything up to 11 until it's difficult to pick out individual elements. In fact, the guitar tone here is definitely thicker and meatier than it would be for a typical power metal album. As I've said, Battlelore isn't *strictly* power metal, but fall more into what I'd call "Tolkien-core" or maybe a better term would be "fantasy-core," part of a wave of quasi-extreme symphonic metal bands that are steeped in fantasy elements, alongside bands like Summoning, Bal-Sagoth, and Turisas, which tend to appeal to a primary power metal audience without being out and out "power metal." Battlelore is probably the tamest of these bands, ensuring they'd have appeal to most of those who can stomach any sort of harsh vocals, as they feature Kaisa Jouhki's soft, ethereal clean vocals to counteract Tomi Mykkänen's yells and growls. In fact, in some songs, like "Guardians" or "Daughter of the Sun," Jouhki's soothing croon stands on its own for much of the song before bringing in Mykkänen for some angry war metal goodness, and while I think that ultimately the two work best in conjunction with each other, I don't think this is a mistake in the context that it's used, as it's always done in softer sections where adding Mykkänen would be overkill.

Jouhki's ability is somewhat limited, though, as she has little range and no power to speak of, certainly no Floor Jansen or Simone Simons in terms of technical ability, but the band clearly knows how to best utilize her, so it's never really an issue. Alongside copious amounts of synths and keyboards, pummeling guitar riffs, and Tomi Mykkänen either barking or occasionally also doing clean vocals, she sounds great, exemplifying the lyrical ambiance of the elves or the Valar in Tolkienian mythology. I should point out that you really need to like synths to like this band because they're often taking lead over the guitars, which often feel more like a part of the rhythm section than anything, providing a nice meaty foundation for the rest of the music to rest on but very rarely taking the spotlight. There's also no insanely charismatic and talented vocalist here for fans of someone like Roy Khan or Hansi Kursch to focus on - in fact, on paper, this really shouldn't work nearly as well as it does, but the band has chops where it's important - namely, the songwriting. Crafting intricate soundscapes whose often over-the-top nature belies the subtlety of the craft responsible for them, this really serves more as a soundtrack for a certain lyrical idea - namely, Tolkien and high fantasy - than a collection of songs, per se.

The only flaw with the band's formula here in my estimation is that some songs can go on a bit long if they stick to one element - either the harsher guitar and male vocal element or the softer symphonic and female vocal counterpart. "Daughter of the Sun" is an example of this, and while it's quite a beautiful piece, I feel it could have been trimmed down as the pacing is quite slow and we get nearly half the song before the placid soft opening is countered with some heavier stuff. However, the song does have a pretty cool section at the end going for it, with Jouhki adding some semi-harsh "whispers" to add to a discordant, evil ambiance, which is a nice touch. I think the album overall is a bit longer than it needs to be as well, though, with 11 songs being a bit more than I need for this style where most songs have little to make them stand out on their own and start to run together after a while. By song 10 or 11 I'm starting to feel like the band is just rehashing the same ideas and milking them a bit more than they're good for, though there are touches here or there that are memorable. Still, most of the band's previous albums coming in around 9 songs and in the 40-45 minute range made more sense and felt like a good fit for the band - imagine a Dragonforce album coming in at 11 songs (before adding in a cover or alternate version), and you'll get what I'm talking about. (Yes, Reaching into Infinity, I'm looking at you.)

Overall, The Last Alliance isn't without its flaws, but we're not talking about a band full of guitar wizardry or vocal acrobatics here - we're talking about Battlelore, and for what the band aims to do I think they accomplish it very well here. For someone looking for a cinematic version of symphonic, beauty-and-the-beast laden fantasy-core, this hits the spot better than most of its competition, and nowadays I still prefer it to most of the limp-wristed, female-fronted symphonic metal scene, as it still retains a bit more of a metal backbone than something like Epica or Nightwish, and has a broader range of focus than just a singular operatic vocalist. It may not do any one thing better than the majority of its competition, but it brings everything together in a way that's bound to appeal to fantasy nerds like me and has quite a bit of charm to it that still feels fresh a decade and a half after its release. If you're curious about this band or interested in symphonic metal that has a bit more of an edge to it than the standard female-fronted fare, The Last Alliance is a fantastic jumping-off point.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Fernando on January 18, 2024.

After 2020, when Korgonthurus, the original band of Corvus, the former second vocalist of Horna, and Finnish underground stalwart Kryth released their long awaited third album Kuolleestasyntynyt, I was waiting with bated breath for their next full length, and after a brief detour with a commemorative EP, the band finally unleashed their fourth opus, Jumalhaaska, and once again through Woodcut Records.

For those unfamiliar, Korgonthurus play black metal, and while they do fit the basic descriptions of Finnish black metal, they’re among the most distinct bands, in very simple terms that frankly don’t do them justice. The band’s particular style of black metal is both depressive and furious. They perfectly blend bleak atmospheres with ultra violent brutality, and this new record, is the band’s conscious effort to display all the strengths of their past work with something new, and suffice to say, this was one of the best black metal records of 2023, and one I’m still kicking myself for not covering as soon as it dropped.

The biggest difference of this record with their outstanding 2020 LP is the song lengths. This is the band’s longest album to date and on top of that, it’s only 4 songs and all are over 10 minutes. Now some people are rightfully salivating over this, and longtime fans of this band probably delighted as well since the band’s debut album was also a monstrously long, 2 track record, but I can also understand the massive entry barrier of a 55 minute record of 10 plus minute songs. However, and unlike the band’s first album, Jumalhaaska features the band’s more recent musical developments and like I said earlier this album is the band combining all of their past work into a single, cohesive opus and they certainly succeed. The songs, while long are a constant display of absolute melancholy and dread, with brutality and speed, you can easily get swept away, and by the time they end you realized not a single minute was wasted, even when the band slow down, with elaborated sections of just clean guitars and subtle bass, the music is constantly engaging, they take you through all these soundscapes and their mastery of atmosphere and aggression is without peer.

In regards to the technical aspects, the band are still featuring a clean production, as it has been the case since 2016’s Vuohen Siunaus, but the band have never lost the essential rawness of black metal, and with this record, they’ve gotten pretty damn good at using the clean production to their advantage as you can hear the hate and despair of every instrument. And on that note, I’ll never get tired of singing Corvus’ praises as a vocalist, the man is simply unmatched when it comes to his wailing vocals that perfectly encapsulates the band’s wretched and desolate sound, even now, he still sounds as rabid and demented as ever, and I can’t imagine this band without his voice or his excellent guitar skills. And while Corvus is the most noticeable member, let’s not discard the rest of the band, as this is now they’re most stable lineup and where able to make it unto a new record. Kryth is of course also unmatched as a drummer, and he keeps getting better with each release, Insanus Xul is a masterful riff machine who perfectly keeps up with Corvus’ leads and melodies, and Incisura ended up being a better fit for the band as a bassist than a guitarist during his first stint. Overall, this is the band’s strongest lineup and the results on record speak for themselves, twice in a row, plus an EP.

While I used to recommend specific songs to check, since this record is only four songs, and all are excellent, and are essential pieces of the whole experience I’ll just say listen to this album from front to back in full, as there’s just so much to marvel at, which may sound strange given how relentless and unforgiving this music is, and indeed, this is pure black metal at its zenith, this record sounds like it is the end of all things, and we’re about to be subsumed in eternal darkness. It may be a lot to take in and I would only recommend this record to the most seasoned of extreme metal veterans, but it's still an astounding record to check, because it’s the best Korgonthurus record yet, and it has everything you would want in black metal.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 13, 2024.

In my humble opinion, Korgonthurus are not among the most important Finnish black metal bands. But this does not say much in a country where each and every inhabitant runs his own project (at least one!). Moreover, Korgonthurus do not lack ambitions and so they present Jumalhaaska (“Goddess”), an album with a rather unusual design. Four songs shape a work that clocks in at 55 minutes. I understand this configuration as a kind of challenge for the listeners. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against bombastic song lengths in general. The 14 minutes of 'Det Som En Gang Var' are brilliant, the 20 minutes of Pest’s “Daudafærd” are perfect and Venom’s “At War With Satan” is the diabolic father of them all. But if you only offer little operas instead of songs, it is sometimes somewhat difficult to get access to an album. Jumalhaaska marks no exception in this context. Its songs are multi-layered, not progressive, but with a lot of variations, tempo shifts, changes in intensity and different atmospheres, even though an omnipresent, sinister undertone builds the fundament of the album.

Jumalhaaska, this is the good news, does not fall victim to an annoying number of boring parts. In fact, there is only one sequence which fails to meet the usual quality standard. I am speaking of the calm and expressionless introduction of 'Marraskehrä' that is contributed by a non-charismatic narrator. Anyway, if I ignore this more or less useless part, Korgonthurus offer 52 minutes of true Northern black metal. The material does not take care for catchy sections (and sometimes I wish it did), but it reflects the black souls of the musicians. Thus, the musical offering comes close to the true spiritual core of the subgenre. All chapters are filled to the brim with ominous, devastating, melancholic and desperate parts, while the lead vocalist contributes hate, misanthropy and total dedication. The songs appear as a continuation and extension of the title track of Kuolleestasyntynyt, the band’s output from 2020. This piece already had a very interesting, tension-increasing structure. Now the quartet has almost found the balance between complexity and a traceable flow, while it walks the thin line between these poles in a remarkably safe way. Even some surprisingly appearing breaks are well embedded in the overall construction.

The most outstanding element of the production is its solid depth, but it also scores with heaviness, darkness and the fact that everything is well balanced. The guitars do not deliver a single optimistic tone and the fact that they are slightly blurred reinforces the listener's impression of being caught up in a maelstrom of sombre emotions. The artwork is also well done and therefore I come to the conclusion that this output need not fear comparison with other works from the artists' homeland. Of course, it takes some spins to realize the power of the overlong pieces – all their facets want to be discovered and therefore you need time, a more or less isolated room with a proper stereo system and maybe a good drink. And, of course, this album called Jumalhaaska. Honestly speaking, Korgonthurus seem to be on their way to become one of the most relevant units from Suomi.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by Jophelerx on September 4, 2024.

Finland's Battlelore are an interesting group I discovered pretty early on in my metal journey, as in that time around early 2009 they were riding the success of their two biggest albums up to that point, 2007's Evernight and 2008's The Last Alliance. While they'd always been on Napalm Records, they certainly broke through in a more substantial way into the American market around this time, as I remember seeing their albums at Best Buy alongside your Kamelots and Hammerfalls around this time, and after checking out the music videos for "House of Heroes" and "Third Immortal," a friend of mine bought this album and let me rip it to my computer as well. While the harsh vocals make this, at least in theory, a bit less accessible than your typical 2000s power metal fare, which was what my friend and I were primarily into around this time, the symphonic shtick and fixation on Tolkien made this an easy sell for most Europower fans, ourselves included, and perhaps the success of the Lord of the Rings films helped Battlelore to gain traction, though looking at the timeline that should have hit hardest around 2005's Third Age of the Sun, which was the band's first album to release following The Return of the King, and that album really didn't do nearly as well as its 2007 successor. Either way, Battlelore were wildly successful for what amounted to a Finnish gimmick band that brought the "beauty and the beast" style vocals to an audience that was eating up things like After Forever and Epica at the time and were really just in the right place at the right time both thematically and stylistically. I'd say 2008's The Last Alliance was their best album both commercially and in terms of musical quality, but there's definitely a fair amount of nostalgia coloring things for me, so you should certainly evaluate their discography on your own and figure out yourself.

That said, The Last Alliance is a definite step up in terms of budget and production, with everything sounding much bigger and more cinematic than it had on previous albums, particularly the first couple which sounded quite cheap and bedroom-ish. Evernight was quite well-produced too, but to my ears, this one is clearer and a bit more polished, with everything coming through crisply without falling prey to the common modern metal problem of gimping the guitar tone or cranking everything up to 11 until it's difficult to pick out individual elements. In fact, the guitar tone here is definitely thicker and meatier than it would be for a typical power metal album. As I've said, Battlelore isn't *strictly* power metal, but fall more into what I'd call "Tolkien-core" or maybe a better term would be "fantasy-core," part of a wave of quasi-extreme symphonic metal bands that are steeped in fantasy elements, alongside bands like Summoning, Bal-Sagoth, and Turisas, which tend to appeal to a primary power metal audience without being out and out "power metal." Battlelore is probably the tamest of these bands, ensuring they'd have appeal to most of those who can stomach any sort of harsh vocals, as they feature Kaisa Jouhki's soft, ethereal clean vocals to counteract Tomi Mykkänen's yells and growls. In fact, in some songs, like "Guardians" or "Daughter of the Sun," Jouhki's soothing croon stands on its own for much of the song before bringing in Mykkänen for some angry war metal goodness, and while I think that ultimately the two work best in conjunction with each other, I don't think this is a mistake in the context that it's used, as it's always done in softer sections where adding Mykkänen would be overkill.

Jouhki's ability is somewhat limited, though, as she has little range and no power to speak of, certainly no Floor Jansen or Simone Simons in terms of technical ability, but the band clearly knows how to best utilize her, so it's never really an issue. Alongside copious amounts of synths and keyboards, pummeling guitar riffs, and Tomi Mykkänen either barking or occasionally also doing clean vocals, she sounds great, exemplifying the lyrical ambiance of the elves or the Valar in Tolkienian mythology. I should point out that you really need to like synths to like this band because they're often taking lead over the guitars, which often feel more like a part of the rhythm section than anything, providing a nice meaty foundation for the rest of the music to rest on but very rarely taking the spotlight. There's also no insanely charismatic and talented vocalist here for fans of someone like Roy Khan or Hansi Kursch to focus on - in fact, on paper, this really shouldn't work nearly as well as it does, but the band has chops where it's important - namely, the songwriting. Crafting intricate soundscapes whose often over-the-top nature belies the subtlety of the craft responsible for them, this really serves more as a soundtrack for a certain lyrical idea - namely, Tolkien and high fantasy - than a collection of songs, per se.

The only flaw with the band's formula here in my estimation is that some songs can go on a bit long if they stick to one element - either the harsher guitar and male vocal element or the softer symphonic and female vocal counterpart. "Daughter of the Sun" is an example of this, and while it's quite a beautiful piece, I feel it could have been trimmed down as the pacing is quite slow and we get nearly half the song before the placid soft opening is countered with some heavier stuff. However, the song does have a pretty cool section at the end going for it, with Jouhki adding some semi-harsh "whispers" to add to a discordant, evil ambiance, which is a nice touch. I think the album overall is a bit longer than it needs to be as well, though, with 11 songs being a bit more than I need for this style where most songs have little to make them stand out on their own and start to run together after a while. By song 10 or 11 I'm starting to feel like the band is just rehashing the same ideas and milking them a bit more than they're good for, though there are touches here or there that are memorable. Still, most of the band's previous albums coming in around 9 songs and in the 40-45 minute range made more sense and felt like a good fit for the band - imagine a Dragonforce album coming in at 11 songs (before adding in a cover or alternate version), and you'll get what I'm talking about. (Yes, Reaching into Infinity, I'm looking at you.)

Overall, The Last Alliance isn't without its flaws, but we're not talking about a band full of guitar wizardry or vocal acrobatics here - we're talking about Battlelore, and for what the band aims to do I think they accomplish it very well here. For someone looking for a cinematic version of symphonic, beauty-and-the-beast laden fantasy-core, this hits the spot better than most of its competition, and nowadays I still prefer it to most of the limp-wristed, female-fronted symphonic metal scene, as it still retains a bit more of a metal backbone than something like Epica or Nightwish, and has a broader range of focus than just a singular operatic vocalist. It may not do any one thing better than the majority of its competition, but it brings everything together in a way that's bound to appeal to fantasy nerds like me and has quite a bit of charm to it that still feels fresh a decade and a half after its release. If you're curious about this band or interested in symphonic metal that has a bit more of an edge to it than the standard female-fronted fare, The Last Alliance is a fantastic jumping-off point.

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Review by Felix on March 14, 2022.

Good music makes our lives better. It is therefore laudable that Sebastian Ramstedt, member and highly competent composer of the mighty Necrophobic, surfaces with another band. On the other hand, his new playground does not differ very much from his original area of activity. There is a lot of Necrophobic in the debut of In Aphelion (just remember the name of the intro of "Dawn Of The Damned") and in the band’s line up. Johan Bergebäck is, exactly like the mastermind himself, involved in both bands. But I fear I am losing myself in irrelevancies. Maybe it makes more sense to begin with this statement: songs like the perfectly flowing, fast-paced 'Let The Beast Run Wild' or the harsh yet partly triumphant-heroic 'The Origin' are great. Necrophobical, so to say, and this is meant as a compliment.

Of course, Ramstedt, the spiritual father of the best songs of the last two albums of Necrophobic, namely the unbelievably intense “Sacrosanct” and overwhelmingly haunting “Mirror Black”, still knows his trade. He and his comrades have a knack for smooth song patterns, eerie melodies and the right degree of drama. Moreover, it goes without saying that In Aphelion deliver a production which is on par with the least releases of Ramstedt’s and Bergebäck’s main band. Everything sounds crisp and clean, perhaps a bit too much polished, but never sterile or soulless. And to avoid misunderstandings: in terms of cleanliness, the vocals mark the exception to the norm. Ramstedt’s throaty, pretty diabolic and adequate vocals have an impact. It’s no outstanding performance, but a good one. (Nevertheless, it becomes obvious why Anders Strokirk – and not Ramstedt –delivers the vocals for Necrophobic.)

A very special song is 'Luciferian Age', a comparatively slow number. It is based on an almost soft guitar line, but holds a massive amount of atmospheric density. It also does not lack harshness – somehow the song manages to present a very extraordinary combination of mild and all-encompassing elements. Whirring guitars meet broad double bass bombardment and “mischief” in written in big letters over the entire song. A demonic, apocalyptic grower – and, by the way, the shortest track on Moribund. Here I come to one of the few weak points. Two or three songs, inter alia 'This Night Seems Endless', are too opulent, not painfully overloaded, but they more or less lack compactness. That’s not the only thing I want to mention in this context. Sometimes it seems that experience beats excitement with the result that everything sounds well, but also well-known. Moribund is rather a record of mature artists than of adventurous fireheads. It’s a (very) good work, the only thing I miss every now and then is the ultimate thrill.

But don’t get me wrong. There are legions of competitors who do a worse job than In Aphelion. Perhaps my expectations are just too high when it comes to something that is connected with Necrophobic. Therefore I can fully recommend Moribund to everyone out there, especially for those who like precisely playing musicians, a mix of melodramatic, fiery and atmospherically dense sequences and a proper degree of catchy moments. 'He Who Saw The Abyss' is one of the tracks where all these components are put together in a very masterly manner. But is goes without saying that one should get in touch with the remaining nine tracks as well, because good music makes our lives better.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Michael on January 26, 2022.

Just a few months after the very nice appetizer EP called Luciferian Age Swedish-Dutch collaboration In Aphelion (the trio consists of Necrophobic and Cryptosis members) release their first full-length album Moribund. If you know the demo and the EP already, you may think you know what you will be dealing with within the next hour but beware because some tracks do have a quite different approach than what you know from previous releases.

The album starts with a very nostalgic intro taken from a horror movie and it fits really well with the pretty old-school cover which was designed by Sebastian Ramstedt himself. Soon this ill-fevered atmosphere turns into a relentless and awesomely fast black metal track with really hateful vocals. This doesn't mean that you will only find a sheer black metal here because there's always a very melodic and playful red line within the compositions. You can also clearly hear the thrash and classic metal influences Sebastian Ramstedt has in the riffs (especially the guitar solos). The next three tracks were already released on Luciferian Age and the demo and in my opinion, they are very atmospheric and rousing. I won't talk about them in detail because I did this on my previous reviews and don't want to repeat myself here but what I can say is that I have a feeling that these tracks will become some classics because of their very catchy nature and their high recognition value. The nightmare continues with a quite slow and gloomy track called 'This Night Seems Endless'. Sebastian’s vocal creates a very sinister atmosphere (I see a demon longing for the souls of some innocent victims in a very dark night and nobody can escape it) and through the very slow and simple riffing the band creates a somewhat icy feeling (at least for me) and I get some shivers running down my spine. 'The Origin' starts as another slow track but within its course it turns into a song that could also fit perfect onto a Necrophobic album. I guess this is the one on which you can hear most clearly that both guitarists (the second one is Johan Bergebäck) are involved in that legendary Swedish band. 'Sorrow, Fire And Hate' is an absolute neckbreaking track with a lot of tempo changes and superb guitar leads. Marco Prijs drumming is very precise, and I have to admit that he too did a superb job on this album. The closer 'Requiem' is the most atmospheric track on Moribund and one of my favorites where once again, we can hear a very fast piece underlined with some fantastic guitar leads. A very epic, yet dramatic song is created through these instrumental arrangements and it's really worth listening to few times in a row. What I find remarkable (not only on this track but in general) is the playing technique Sebastian Ramstedt is utilizing here that lets the guitar sound slightly like keyboards at some points. He told me that this is a trick that Michael Schenker used to do with his guitars too and it sounds fantastic.

Please notice that although I only talked in detail about some tracks, the other ones aren't weaker in any way. This is a really great release and if you have the opportunity then listen to it with good headphones on, you will notice so many more (little) details in the songs that you might not get while listening on a stereo. At least this is how I experienced it. The album is produced very well and I couldn't find any things on it to criticize. Maybe the total running time of 58:05 minutes may be a small point to grouse but that would be grousing on a very high level. Moribund is a very entertaining album in my opinion and together with the new Kvaen is one of the early black metal highlights in 2022. It will be hard to top.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 endless nights