There are always those nagging questions that just never seem to get answered when it comes to music. What if Jari hadn’t taken 8 years to finally get the 2nd Wintersun album completed? What if Ronnie James Dio had survived and gotten to complete the “Magica” trilogy? But I think one question that has plagued me to a somewhat lesser extent than those two has been answered, namely: What if Children Of Bodom had decided not to jump on the innovation bandwagon after “Follow The Reaper”. The answer to that question is found, with maybe a couple of mild variations here and there, in Imperanon’s lone offering “Stained”.
Perhaps it is just me, but Nuclear Blast seems to have made it a habit of dumping decent bands after a mere single release in order to stay up to date with current trends. Imperanon’s style could largely be seen as abrogated in light of its release, as just about every major power metal infused melodeath band proceeded to either strip down the technical aspects of their music, or incorporate some of the same modern rock and metalcore influences that In Flames had brought to the table just a couple years before this came out. Indeed, while this album does take the route of brevity and catchiness to the extreme, it’s so littered with impressive lead guitar and keyboard solos that one might suspect that Stratovarius had fired Koltipelto and replaced him with Alexi Laiho on vocals.
The name of the game being played on “Stained” is formulaic, and Imperanon play it almost to a fault. Echoes of the same 3 or 4 chord clichés that typified the mid 80s transitional era from the NWOBHM to early power/speed metal that typified “Hatebreeder” and “Follow The Reaper” are all over every single album, as Iron Maiden and Helloween oriented riffing, sprinkled over with Malmsteen inspired lead passages, are painted over with dense keyboard textures, raucous sounding drums and toneless yet highly intelligible shrieks. Complementing the obvious early Children Of Bodom worship going on here are two guest clean vocal slots on “Hollow Man” and “Shadowsouls” that bring a further power metal bent to the equation, literally to the point where the former sounds like it could have been a sped up b-side from Sonata Arctica’s “Silence”.
The biggest flaws on this album are basically what most fans of this style would consider its greatest strength, and that is that it is a purely Finnish take on the genre. The keyboards are heavily present, literally to the point of fighting the guitars for prominence, the vocals are a one-dimensional sepulchral bark in the same mold as heard out of Ancient about 10 years prior, and the songs are so formulaic and methodical that any era trained in power metal will be able to predict each chord change. This is one-dimensional, no song even attempts at mirroring the epic grandeur that often accompanies a more ambitious power metal album such as the “Keepers” albums or latter day Blind Guardian for a song or two. Nevertheless, a couple of songs such as “The End” and “Sold” manage to entice the ears and impress despite not even breaking the 4 minute barrier.
Most who discover this band will probably do so due to its links to Wintersun, Norther, and Finntroll, and all whom do should be careful not to expect much more in the variety department than what defined a typical Norther release (with a more competent guitar performance). It’s definitely an entertaining listen, but also one that may wear thin after repeated listens when compared with the much more varied and aggressive assault found on “Hatebreeder”, let alone the ambitious majesty heard out of Jari’s respective projects.