Tree of Knowledge

Their music is moving away from black metal towards a style still dark but more melodic and perhaps Gothic in mood and ambience but CoO's quirkier aspects are still very much in evidence if now changed and expanded. My impression is that there's a heavier emphasis on the garage rock / punk sound that's always been part of the band's style but that could be an effect of the quality of the sound production which is clearer than it was on the band's first two albums. The band is starting to incorporate more mood and emotion into its songs and this is evident particularly in the vocalist's singing style which, though still a bit out of tune and half-spoken / half-sung, has improved and, at least in one track, is switching between clean vocals and more guttural BM-influenced vocals with ease.

The stand-out tracks are ones that take CoO out of the band's comfort zone and which have more mood or feeling, or demonstrate more skill and ability, than what I thought the band was capable of. "Puu Nukkuu Hadassaan" is the only Finnish-language song on the album and is one where the vocalist isn't out of tune on, a real surprise as the instrumentation is sparse and the entire song has to rely on the vocalist to carry it through. In the past CoO tended to swathe songs in a kind of coolish yet steaming lo-fi atmosphere so this particular track, reliant on empty space and an interior mood, is an unexpected departure from the rest of the album.

Then there's "Show me the way to the Wishing Well" which features a slightly different vocal style to handle the deep emotions within the lyrics: the singing initially seems sort of indifferent but this is to mask longing and need for contact while fitting in with the music's heavy surging rhythms and sinister spiky guitar noise. "Dead Eyes, Dead Soul" is another worthy track, filled with foreboding, despair and then aggression and defiance. A short instrumental piece "Summer Graves" may initially have been intended to give some relief between two quite intense songs but the slightly gloomy melody suggests there's a lot happening on a subconscious level that can only be felt but never properly communicated on the conscious plane. The track's extended one-note coda hints at a longing to express the deep feelings that remains unfulfilled.

If you've been reading past CoO reviews of mine, you're probably not taking this one too seriously as I've given high percentages to earlier albums, based mainly on what I thought at the time about the band's distinctive style and direction. This particular recording finds the band treading in depths it's not accustomed to and making its way through previously uncharted waters quite capably while retaining its eccentricities. There's probably a lot of room for improvement and change and I'm finding myself in the position I've castigated others for of not wanting the band to change its style too much and wanting it to stick to what it's done in the past. But then like everyone else the CoO musicians must change and develop to keep fresh and relevant, and to keep themselves interested in continuing with their music.

The major improvement here is the vocalist who has developed a voice now able to convey feeling, even if it's rather limited at this stage, with a slightly wider vocal range. He no longer sounds like Homer Simpson and there's also a youthful flexibility I wasn't aware of before. Now if he can only hold a tune for an entire album's length ...