Some Forsaken Ones Part 2

Every now and then there are these extremely rough mixed, Lo-fi recordings that come around that leave an impression. Despite any flaws in the mixing, or the instrumental timbre, you just hear the beauty of the sound as if it were recorded in a professional grade studio and hope that someone gets around to signing the band so they can do it. This little demo courtesy of the independent Finnish outfit Into My Houses accomplishes all of this by simultaneously maintaining a balance of melodic intrigue and stylistic eclecticism appropriate to the progressive metal label.

Musically this listens like a tuneful and riff happy sort of power metal like one might hear out of Dark Moor or Landguard, minus the symphonic elements. Choruses are often catchy, though also fleeting, as the 4 songs on here tend to flow in a free form manner that caters to the multiple lead vocalist arrangement of the band. Vocally things lead towards a melodic narrative approach with occasional references to extreme forms of metal, particularly the goblin-like mutterings first popularized in early Bathory material. The voices vary in range, but all closely resemble the mostly smooth yet rough edged vocal presentations familiar to fans of both Fairyland vocalists Elise Martin and Max Leclercq. The obvious stand out song that highlights all of these mutually complementary elements is “The Beauty Of Life”, which also showcases studio musician Tomi Tupiini’s technical prowess on both the guitar and bass.

Although a brilliant musical performance, the limitations of the recording technology and array of instruments used hold this back a bit. The drum machine sound is extremely mechanical and is pretty heavy on the reverb. The snare sound tends to resemble a pop more than the triumphant punch sound normally associated with a well produced power metal album, and seems to bleed together and lose its attack during roll sections. The guitar arrangement also occasionally sounds thin due to a small number of track overdubs, resulting in something comparable to a mid-80s quality product mixing wise. The voice tracking is actually the strongest part of the production, which is usually the other way around with a demo in this style of metal. Effects are used occasionally, but the competence level of each singer carries the songs well enough on their own.

If you’ve wondered what a neoclassical power progressive version of Avantasia without all the keyboards and a slight helping of Ayreon style eclecticism would sound like, Into My Houses is your answer. With the right amount of support, this might be the perfect answer to Magic Kingdom’s “Metallic Tragedy”, which is regularly heralded as the most unique blend of melodic and neoclassical power metal with the darker and more extreme genres of the metal movement.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on August 6, 2008.