Voice of Wilderness

Korpiklaani's first album, "Spirit of the Forest", was pretty awesome. It had wonderful folk melodies fused with some metal, and the result was a very fun, good sounding album. However it was also a bit inconsistent. This album is not drastically different, however you can definitely make out a few differences. It still has crazy and fast folk melodies, but it sounds much more organized and structured while still being fun. The album is much more consistent in that you still have standout tracks, but nothing really that bores you.

The lyrics are still funny as hell, here are two examples, both from the song "Cottages and Saunas".

"We eat iron, we shit the chain,
we never let them live."
"And horses' carcasses among with the bodies,
and everywhere they're burnt. "

Now to get more into the actual music. It is chaotic, filled with all sorts of folk instruments like violins, flutes, and accordions. There is lots of shouting as well. The instruments blend very well however to get more of a folk feeling, the violins and accordions are often heard over the guitars. This is not a bad thing, but gives the music a much heavier folk influence than other bands of this genre like Finntroll.

Korpiklaani are definitely unique as they have a pretty thick sound, and a very unique folk influence unlike anything I've heard before. You honestly wonder sometimes how drunk the band members must have been to come up with some of this awesome material.

Let me start off with two highlights, "Cottages and Saunas" and "Journey Man". Both of those songs are awesome primarily because of how fast and chaotic they sound. "Cottages and Saunas" features a terrific and melodic violin intro before the song explodes and "Journey Man" has a great and rather heavy drum intro. The melodies on here are spectacular. Very thick, heavy, but melodic at the same time. I think those are the perfect ingredients for that chaotic feel. Both songs do for the most part put folk instruments above the guitars so some may not like that, but I think Korpiklaani makes it work.

"Pine Woods" and "Ryyppäjäiset" are both instrumentals and I love both, which says a lot because I find instrumentals boring and bland a lot of the time. "Pine Woods" starts off rather calmly and with a big flute sound. The song gradually builds up in both power and speed. About halfway through you get a drum transition into the second half which is definitely more heavy with a great and rather folky sounding guitar solo that is backed by some dark and heavier guitar riffs. "Ryyppäjäiset" is the more "grim" (if you can call it that) of the two instrumentals. It has more of a violin than flute/accordion influence, and has a very pleasant but low pitched melody. It definitely shows more emotion than "Pine Woods".

To sum it up, in this release Korpiklaani really got their act together and produced more serious and structured music while not losing the fun aspect of it. You still feel like going to the woods and drinking with your friends in this album as much as you did in the last one. It is just noticeably more consistent.