Äio

Äio, Metsatöll's fourth full length is finally out through the famous Finnish label Spinefarm records. The new album seals a decade of success, since this band impressed locally and regionally with their folk heavy metal mixture. The fans are raising the bar higher, and expectations for a more solid work is something to consider. But the question that persists here is, did they really upgrade the quality of their output or they just got worse at creating interesting worthy stuff? It is regrettable to say that there is something wrong with this album. It’s not what I expected at all.

This full length is a long way journey, it contains 14 songs, most of them are unlistenable and boring. You have one hour to literally de-energize yourself. That’s how bad it feels listening to this thing. But before I delve into the bulk of the release, I should mention one of the rare pros of it, which is simply the production. It’s nothing but a well-produced album. All instruments are easy to distinguish and sound clear to the ear. This may probably cheer you up, for a real disastrous release.

There are some instruments that I should give them merit, since they show a positive attitude despite of the songwriting’s absolute failure. Let’s start off with one of the good performers here, the bass, which sounds quite solid in the mix and adds this standard heavy touch. The drums do the job as well. They generally build up a good combination of double bass and technical patterns, portrayed in some tracks like Äio and Joud. The guitar work doesn’t level up to the aforementioned instruments, and they remain unnoticeable. The riffing work is lacking, and they tend to be repetitive. Acoustic parts occur from time to time but they don’t leave any good impressions. Something else I would criticize is the scarcity of solos, as they barely exist. On the other hand, traditional folk instruments dominate, then again, lacking consistency and good timing. They don’t really carry the true feeling of the sound, they just fill in for the sake of it. What’s left is the vocals part, the most awful element of this mediocre music. They really are ugly to hear and might displease you quickly. You don’t feel there is a rhythm in there. It’s just not working unfortunately.

To finish this off, I think Äio is something to forget. This is one of those bad albums that went wrong from head to toe. The weak songwriting of this release killed the good potential of some instruments here. My recommendation goes to avoid this if you are one of those fussy metalheads. As for those who are connected to Metsatöll, I believe you’re going to taste something sour this time, something opposite to the sweet stuff you heard earlier from these Estonian guys.

Written for Encyclopaedia Metallum 10-03-2010
© Kimiwind

Metsatöll, the wolf pack from Estonia, come back with their fourth full length album Äio. So far, their career has been a diverse one: from the raw, even ugly burst of Terast mis hangund me hinge (later re-recorded for a much more sophisticated result) to the extremely long, diverse, meandering masterpiece Hiiekoda, to straightforward and much less folky Iivakivi.

The musicianship on Äio is admirable. Especially Atso at drums does a remarkable job, spicing up the songs with catchy rhythms. Margus' singing has improved a huge deal from when the band started. Let's face it, he still isn't the technically greatest metal vocalist out there, but his voice and singing match the songs nicely, and he's a great performer. Kuriraivo's bass is one of the unique elements about Metsatöll. I can't remember hearing another bass sound quite like his, it has very "archaic" feel to it. And as always, Lauri does a great job with the folk instruments, so the foundations for a great folk metal album couldn't be more solid.

My expectations for this album were extremely high. After the release of the single Vaid vaprust they shot through the roof. It seemed like we were on our way to yet another "classic" masterpiece in the spirit of Hiiekoda. Did we get it? Well, kind of. This album is long and diverse as well, and a masterpiece, but that's about as far as the similarities with Hiiekoda go.

First of all, whereas the metal side of Hiiekoda drew mostly from classic heavy metal, Äio takes huge leaps towards progressive metal, the title track being the clearest example of this. And boy, does it work! The prospect of Metsatöll eventually evolving to a full fledged progfolkmetal band is certainly lingering about, and for me, it's a mouth watering thought.

It's not all progressive metal though, we still get acoustic songs (Ema hääl kutsub, Kuni pole kodus olen kaugel teel) and "classic" Metsatöll songs (Vaid vaprust, Vägi ja võim) as well. But this isn't all, the diversity goes further than the structure of the songs. Metsatöll truly begin to shake the conventional means of folk metal expression on this record. Take the song Verijää. It starts off like one million other battle songs, a...battle scene. Oh, you got me there Töll, I never expected anything like that! Except that I did.

Well, there's always room for one generic hack and slash oh ye mighty unconquered hero song on a folk metal album. But wait...does the narrator of the song die? Yes he does! Ok, so next we're going to hear how he requests his companions to avenge his death by bringing down the enemy army, raiding their homeland, raping their women, burning their homes, enslaving their children, mutilating their domestic animals and calling their trade partners stupid fags. No...he just dies and hopes to meet his beloved ones in the afterlife?

I can already hear the horrified shrieks of the Shirtless True Warriors, a seemingly worldwide brotherhood that occupies 90% of front row spots on every folk metal gig, such a blatant violation of the folk metal battle song aesthetic we have here. And quite frankly it serves them bastards right. Great work Metsatöll, about time someone began dusting the clichés.

Another new innovation as far as I know is adding in a song (Roju) that is very straightforwardly about sex. Considering how usual a subject sex is in folk poetry all over the world, folk metal bands have sung about it extremely rarely. You know what the stereotypical folk metal song is about: war, swords, war, drinking, war, fighting, war, battle and war. Therefor it's extremely refreshing to hear someone sing about shagging, with a self ironic approach of course. This kind of self irony when it comes to sex is typical for balto-finnic folklore: if there's any truth in it, around these parts only talks grow big.

Third stand out song that further widens the gap to the average folk metal record is Kabelimatsid, a song about how churches built on holy places should be brought down. No, I don't think it's a suggestion to go and burn a few churches. Neither do I see a simple "let's mock Christianity to appear brootal and kool" attitude. Instead, I see a metaphor here: we, descendants of pre Christian cultures, must look back to understand who our ancestors were and what they held in regard. Whatever it may have been, we can be sure it wasn't the church that was built on their torn down sacred grove...

Epic feel. We all want a dose of that from a folk metal album right? Well, you've picked up the right album. Äio is epic all right. But, it's not epic in the usual, bombastic way, like for example Turisas. Much more subtle, but still extremely powerful forces are at work on Äio. The epicness of Turisas, Bathory and many many other bands is that of the thunder god riding across the sky in his chariot tossing lightning around, which is all good and beautiful.

However, Äio is epic in the way you'd expect from Mother Earth: the song may be very peaceful on the surface, but deep within tectonic plates grind together, and while you don't feel it right now, you know that at any minute an earthquake can level the place. Even if it never hits, you are still shaken by the prospect, and that is the essence of epic you find on Äio.

All this put together, we have a near perfect album in Äio. I can't see any folk metal band producing anything better right at the moment. If this album does not cement Metsatöll's position as one of the most prominent folk metal bands internationally, the folk metal audience can go and choke on the countless cheap "celtic" rip offs the genre has become infested with, because in that case they obviously wouldn't recognize genius if it was smashed in their face and stuffed down their throats.