Goblin Island

It is common for metal bands to attempt to give fans something new and different to listen to in today's industry. We here metal fused with everything from electronica to jazz. We here bands dedicate themselves to all kinds of silly things...ninjas, trolls, beer, pirates, and the resurrection of satanic demons. No one succeeds at making music as strange as Nekrogolikon though, and no one does it as well either.

Nekrogoblikon gives us melodic death/folk metal complete with epic keyboards, guitars that can lay down quirky grooves or shred your face off, and vocals that range from goblin screeches to deep death metal-like gutturals. And if you haven't figured it out already, the lyrics are all about GOBLINS! Goblins eating pirate skin, goblins eating troll balls, goblins eating filthy humans, and goblins eating...well, all kinds of strange things.
Goblin Island shows that Nekrogoblikon has some great potential. There are some very great moments on this disc that really make you want to be a fan of this band. Certain points where their superb musicianship and fantastic song writing ability shines through and overpowers their childish humor. You can really appreciate these guys when they are shredding it up and taking their goblin lyrics seriously. And I use the word seriously lightly, what I mean is "a little more serious than usual."

Unfortunately, there are only a few songs where they stick to this formula the entire time, and the rest of the songs are ruined by sporadic outbursts of immaturity and amateur-ness. One example of this is the clean vocals. They aren't funny, and actually ruin the mood of the entire cd. The sung lyrics sound like they are trying too hard to be funny and in the end it just sounds forced. Goblins flying down from space to stuff babies in cradles of razors? Funny. Goblins attacking and eating pirates? Hilarious. But the clean vocals just make the band sound immature, and even though they are meant to be a humorous band, it's hard to take them seriously after hearing a song like Army of Goblins. The fact that they are a goblin metal band is funny enough, they don't need to push it too hard with stuff like that. It only lessens their music in my opinion.

Goblin Island is an enjoyable album that is fun to listen to. But there are moments where you realize they could be much better if they could take themselves a little more seriously. I look forward to what they will give us in the future and hope for the best.