Chaotic Nation

Entwine has been knocking about the Finnish melodic gothic metal scene since 1995, one of the longest running acts in the style, as most of their contemporaries have either moved on to greener pastures, to retirement homes, or just up and changed names. The band has stuck to a fairly simple formula of radio friendly material throughout their career, rather punchy and often catchy. Now seven albums into their career, 2015's Chaotic Nation sees the band doing exactly what they've been doing all these years. Ten tracks of catchy, poppy Finnish gothic metal, which is exactly what we've come to expect from Entwine.

While their formula hasn't changed over the years, certain albums have tinkered with different approaches, like the slightly heavier riffing style of DiEversity or the overly melodramatic flair of Time of Despair. Chaotic Nation sees the band incorporating more pop influences while still retaining heavier riffing and thundering percussion. The music drinks from the same well as acts like H.I.M. and To/Die/For, with chunky power chord based riffing, lush symphonic backing and a powerful, yet bouncy rhythm section. A fair amount of forceful guitar riffs are worked into the songs, taking away just a bit of that overly saccharine sound and giving the band just a bit of a heavier edge than some of their contemporaries, with the syncopated, near melodic death metal style on “The Evil Lives in the Shadows” perhaps the strongest.

The band does experiment a bit on Chaotic Nation and this is where things began to deteriorate, quickly. “As We Arise” begins with an alt-rock, pop punk styled opener, with acoustic guitars and zero power, which thankfully grows some balls as the song moves on. Despite the nice symphonic accents sounding like a film score during “Plastic World”, the song drifts into what sounds like Latin swing, which is awfully out of place and head-scratchingly strange. Not all of their experimenting goes awry, though, as “Fortune Falls” brings a dash of '80s synth pop, but the band is actually able to pull it off quite well, bringing a uniquely retro vibe to track.

Mika Tauriainen's voice has matured quite well in the past few years. While his delivery still sounds like his distinctive mid-range, nasally delivery style of old, it's far less whiny and pompous than before. The lyrical content remains quite juvenile, reading like an edgy teen's angsty diary, with “Plastic World” and “Saint of Sorrow” being two of the worst offenders. Despite the eye rolling lyrics, Taurianinen's vocal delivery is solid with perhaps his best performance yet, sounding exactly like you'd expect poppy Finnish gothic metal vocals to sound.

Despite a few stumbles, Chaotic Nation is the band's strongest overall effort since 2004's DiEversity, being more powerful and emotive than both Fatal Design and Painstained. Fans of the genre should certainly check out the album, but it's definitely not going to win any new followers to the style. Regardless, if you worship at the altar of To/Die/For, For My Pain and later period Sentenced, Chaotic Nation should provide a quick fix of sugar coated, streamlined, and supremely polished gothic metal.

Written for The Metal Observer.