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Before listening for the first time Moonsorrow I thought they were another boring clone of Children Of Bodom or Finntroll, but luckily for us all, this was absolutely wrong. Moonsorrow is a Finnish band like those, but they perform very good music that could be categorised as Viking metal. This is their second album, and the title in English means “Of Strength and Honour”. So I think you got the point of whither the whole thing is going... epic lyrics about pride, war, battles, swords, pompous parts, glory, blah blah blah...? Nay, Moonsorrow isn´t a typical band in my opinion. No cheap rip offs, no stupid poses, nothing but really good music. I once read their music was in the vein of Bathory´s “Hammerheart” and similar things but I don´t really think so: this is not the typical viking metal where the main traits are repetitive melodies, “we´re boozing in a tavern and we are proud to plunder foreign shores” vocals, boring drums and so on. The excellent sound is a fantastic ground to build up the music, and Moonsorrow trusted Tico-Tico and its man on the keys Ahti Kortelainen to reach this strong and clean production. As I say, this band is ahead of the pack of viking bands; first of all, Moonsorrow give preponderance to aggresive vocals in the vein of classic black metal, being their use of clean singing lines very sensible and wise. Music on the other hand is very melodic and varied enough to entertain the listener and annihilate every glimpse of a yawn in our mouths. There are some fast and furious parts here and there (but not many, really, the band concentrates on mid tempos), keyboards providing the epic feeling without erecting as the main character and appearing from time to time, some really bombastic passages, accoustic guitars, and some traditional parts where mouth harps and even handclaps –yeah, listen to that part on the third track “Kylän Pääsä” where hands and music collide in a viking stunning marriage of rhythm, and you will immediately agree...- “Voimasta ja Kunniasta” is made up of six tracks, but although the first one is a short piano intro you´d better abandon the idea of looking this album as a boring one. It´s beautiful and manifold enough to be rated as fantastic. By the way, lyrics are, as in every Moonsorrow album, sung in Finnish, and it fits perfectly in the music. Suomeksi pride!!!!
| Tracklist |
| 1. Tyven |
| 2. Sankarihauta |
| 3. Kylän Päässä |
| 4. Hiidenpelto (incl. Häpeän Hiljaiset Vedet) |
| 5. Aurinko Ja Kuu |
| 6. Sankaritarina |
: 48.38
| Buy other Moonsorrow albums |
