Battlelore - Evernight

June 24, 2008

Reviewer: Jesse

This Finnish group of LARPers (just kidding guys) has really come a long way since they’re debut six years ago.  What was once a drunken good time wrought with supremely catchy melodies and the closest thing to a metal Lord of the Rings audio book, has now grown up and matured into a professional band of seasoned veterans yet still heavy on the fantasy.

Battlelore’s latest album, Evernight, completes the transformation that began after Patrik Mennander stepped down from vocal duties two albums ago.  Some might say that this progression was inevitable anyway, but it’s certainly coincidental.  Gone are the clean male vocals and gone is the lively festiveness found on some of the songs from the first two albums.  Now, enter a much darker, serious and epic, albeit a much more subdued Battlelore.  Of course, the songs are catchy, have plenty of melody and have most earmarks of your typical Battlelore album, but it seems like there’s an emphasis now for no one to stand out.  Everything seems very calculated and structured, and well honestly… not fun.  Not the Battlelore that I used to know.  No simultaneous singing between both vocalists, no synth leads and very few guitar leads.

Speaking of the vocals, I have to get back to this because in this style of metal, vocals make a whale of a difference on making or breaking the album.  The new male singer has one of the more generic and flat growls I’ve ever heard.  He’s all throat and no stomach, meaning it’s very thin with no strength.  Such a step backwards from Mennander.

Miss Kaisa Jouhki also seems to be trying to sound as reserved as possible on this album.  She clearly has the vocal talent to blow everyone away, but just seems so content in holding back.  I mean honestly, at times she sounds eerily similar to Shawn Colvin singing at Lilith Fair or something.

Now, despite all of my bitching, I don’t hate this album as you might have assumed.  On the contrary, I think it’s very good and enjoyable.  The sound is crystal clear and the drummer is quite the talent. Very gifted man behind the kit.  It’s just that I fear that Battlelore are losing that youthful spirit when it was fun for them and could possibly be treating this as if it were a job and not a passion.  And hey, I’m not some egotistical wind bag… I want very badly to be wrong in that sense.

Release Date: February 26th, 2007 Label: Napalm Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  House of Heroes
2.  Ocean's Elysium
3.  Summon the Wolves
4.  We Are the Legions
5.  Into the New World
6.  Longing Horizon
7.  Mask of Flies
8.  The Cloak and the Dagger
9.  Beneath the Waves

Total playing time: 42:50

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