Weekly album: Kalmankantaja - Waldeinsamkeit

Kalmankantaja - Waldeinsamkeit

2016 / Atmospheric black metal, black metal

1. Hautamaa

2. Maailmankaski

3. Kalman kivinen kohtu

4. Vaeltaja

5. Waldeinsamkeit

btcarey:  I just recently found out about Kalmankantaja when I was checking if Wyrd (one of my Finnish favorites) had released anything recently. To my surprise, I came across a split from a couple months ago that I had completely missed. Kalmankantaja did an excellent job on it and I figured if the guys from Wyrd thought highly enough of the band to do a split release, then they must be worth checking out. As I dug a bit deeper I quickly found out that these guys were powerhouses! Over the course of about 5 years, Kalmankantaja had already released 9 studio albums and a slew of EPs and splits. As they say, “quantity isn’t necessarily quality” but in Kalmankantaja’s case I am thoroughly impressed by what I’ve heard.

“Waldeinsamkeit” has stood out to me the most so far and since it’s one of their more recent releases (early 2016, already a full length album, EP, and split old) I figured it would be a good choice to talk about. First off the band delves deeply into the atmospheric side of black metal. The guitar parts are mostly repetitive tremolo riffs (with plenty of echo), but do a good job of providing nice melodies to accompany the raspy vocals. One of my favorite aspects of the instrumentation was the synth. Mostly composed of two tones, one of which, very thin and bright, reminding me of wind chimes on a blustery fall day. The other tone was a much more ghostly, dark, background noise that just enveloped the music. Together, these two phrasings made an incredibly vivid atmosphere.

I would easily recommend Kalmankantaja to any fan of atmospheric or even pagan black metal. Fans of bands like Wyrd or Urfaust should also check these guys out.

Favorite Tracks: “Vaeltaja”, “Kalman Kivinen Kohtu”

Orostider: Kalmankantaja wasn't familiar to me even by their name before they were added to Steelfest 2017 line-up. While browsing through their Metallum page, I noticed their tendency to do splits quite frequently and it isn't common to release more than one album in a year so I had to dig into their info a bit more. 'Waldeinsamkeit' is the first Kalmankantaja album released in 2016 and they've already released another one this year. In 2014 Kalmankantaja released four albums which is a lot. This made me think of a chance that they are compensating quality with quantity, but we'll see about it. 

Kalmankantaja's black metal leans towards the more atmospheric and moody side of the scene. The positive side is that they are executing their style quite well and the quantity compensation I feared is inaudible. The problem is, however, the lack of creativity. The album itself is quite decent slab of black metal and there isn't really enough atmospheric black metal written in Finnish, but the music itself doesn't stand out from the rest of the scene. It might be just me, but in my opinion the amount of mediocre black metal has been growing a lot past ten years and it's really hard for a black metal band to offer anything new. So the imperfections of Kalmankantaja aren't actually theirs only, but the whole scene's.

The songs follow the common guidelines of atmospheric black metal. Simple repetitive riffs combined to slow beats and adding echo and reverb to the stack. I'm not saying that the combination is faulty or anything, but I'm hoping for something more even though 'Waldeinsamkeit' could be above average quality overall. The hollow synths used in 'Kalman kivinen kohtu' were a fine addition but I was disappointed of their overall scarcity. The synths are heavily present in the last instrumental track 'Waldeinsamkeit', but the track just proves that the cold and eerie synths should've been used more. 

Even though 'Waldeinsamkeit' doesn't really bring anything new to the table I can easily recommend it to people who are into black metal. The album is probably the most enjoyable if this kind of black metal isn't too familiar already. 

Favourite tracks: 'Kalman kivinen kohtu', 'Waldeinsamkeit'

tp5170: Waldeinsamkeit is what I'd call a pretty competent atmospheric black metal album. It's really entertaining stuff, even if it felt to me like they seriously should have pressed harder with the black metal elements on the instrumental side. It's not a major issue really, but the cleanness of it just hinders my enjoyment a bit.

Another thing about the album is that it gets maybe a bit repetitive at some points, and this is something I thought I'd never say about a atmospheric black metal album because we are probably talking about one if not the most repetitive sub genres of black metal, but they just kept using some of the same tricks throughout the album annoyingly often.

Minor complaints aside, the album sounded surprisingly good and the vocals are absolutely spot on for the album's atmosphere. Even if it's a lot cleaner sounding, Waldeinsamkeit reminds quite bit of Wyrd which is not a bad thing at all in this case.

I don't really know how this compares to other albums of Kalmankantaja, but I wouldn't find it surprising if this was one of their better albums.

Favourite track: 'Hautamaa'

Saor - Roots

Saor - Roots

2013 / Atmospheric Folk/Black Metal

After daily listening to Saor’s “Roots” for the past week and a half, I feel completely blown away.  The first few minutes of the title track “Roots” initially had me a bit skeptical, employing generic, atmospheric black metal elements that can be found throughout the genre. But where most bands sink into that monotonous repetition, Saor forges ahead, creating an enormous sound, filled with a power and beauty I’ve never encountered in the genre before.

“Balance”, is the perfect word to sum up this album. The mix is done flawlessly. All instruments can be heard clearly and consistently, providing a huge spectrum of sounds. This balance especially compliments the use of folk instruments like the tin whistle and violin. Where these delicate instruments would otherwise be drowned out by the guitar and drums, they provide some of the strongest melodies and passages in the whole album. Nothing feels overused and while there is repetition, it doesn’t feel tedious.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the harsh vocals but they are done with a certain passion that definitely benefited the music. And even though it was only administered a few times, the use of clean vocals was very well done.

Overall, this is a great debut album and I would highly suggest it to fans of atmospheric black metal or folk metal.

Favorite Song: Carved in Stone

Weekly album: Saor - Aura

Saor - Aura

2014/ Atmospheric folk black metal

1. Children of Mist

2. Aura

3. The Awakening

4. Farewell

5. Pillars of the Earth

Kattroll: When I first got to know Saor, you could say it was love at first listen. Nowadays I have their hoodie, t-shirt and both of their albums: 'Aura' and 'Roots, of which the former is absolute favourite. In my opinion, 'Aura' is a wonderfully coherent album, whose songs fit together like a glove and without repeating the same. This was one of the reasons I chose this album, but I mainly chose this because, in my opinion, everyone should listen to this even once.   

Even though the album does the thing for me in every possible situation, my favourite moment with it was when I listened to it in a national park. The rain was lashing against my face, the duckboards were slippery and the Finnish swamp scape was so beautiful, yet so rough, like this album. As I arrived to the swamp, my thoughts were quite confusing, but after the album was over, my mood was airy and I felt great. Trying to achieve similar experience is recommended to everyone, if there's a chance to do so. 

Orostider: Scotland, the home of haggis, bagpipe and William Wallace, is also home to Saor, originally known as Àrsaidh. Saor is probably the biggest underground metal phenomenon from Scotland for years and their reputation as the jewel of atmospheric pagan black metal is not just hot air. With a wide range of elements from post-rock to black metal, Saor has definitely assured its place as one of the most interesting acts in Europe.

The opening track 'Children of the Mist' begins the track with a wicked pagan black metal part with a tin whistle main melody. 'Children of the Mist' gives only a slight hint of what's yet to come, even if the overall form of the music remains the same. One of the elements that makes 'Aura' one of the best pagan black metal(-ish) to date, is the variety and strength of the sweet folk influenced melodies. The absolutely top notch songwriting, where every section fits, might be one of the reasons why the melodies, and the album itself, sound so majestically powerful.

One of the uncommon traits of the album is its ability to transmit the enchanting atmosphere of Scotland's meadows to the listener without sounding cheesy or overdoing the folk influenced parts. It might be that 'Aura' doesn't fit every possible mood, but the scale of the moods it goes through is just magnificent. The scale goes from melancholy and longing to joy and pure spiritual strength and the smoothness of the transitions is first class. 

tp5170: I have been listening to Saor occasionally for a while now and in my opinion Aura is simply a charming album. In fact, Aura was initially such an engaging experience that I listened to the album so many times that eventually a hefty break from it was in order.

I think that Saor has in general a pretty interesting sound but what makes Aura such a big deal for me is the atmosphere that keeps evolving and changing throughout the songs, justifying the rather long track lengths.  I also have to emphasize the realization of the pagan / folk theme which works beautifully and gives the album a Scottish face.

But like pretty much any other atmospheric black metal album, I think that also Aura requires a certain type of mindset from the listener for it to really reach its full potential, but when it does there’s nothing quite like it in the folk section of the genre. 

btcarey: Saor’s sophomore album “Aura” is a brilliant follow-up to their 2013 release “Roots”. With “Roots” quickly becoming one of my top Atmospheric black / folk metal albums of the past few years, I was delighted to find that Saor continued down the trail they laid with this new addition. While there are some noticeable stylistic differences between the two records, “Aura” feels like a natural evolution for the band’s sound.

Saor continues to focus on folk instruments and melodies, yet there seems to be a bigger concentration on the guitar and drum parts. The mix is still very fitting for the attitude of the music, which is a bit more aggressive than previously. Unfortunately this slight modification negates from the subtleties and atmosphere perfected on the previous album. This aside, the riffs are much more powerful here then on “Roots”.  Even with this much heavier sound Saor is able to maintain their elegant folk passages with ease (especially on the track “Children of the Mist”).

This is a great stand-alone album that is somewhat shadowed by its extraordinary predecessor. “Aura” will leave new fans begging for more and veterans with a solid sequel to their beloved “Roots”.

Favorite Song: Children of the Mist

Alrakis - Alpha Eri

Alrakis - Alpha Eri

2011 / Atmospheric black metal

Alpha Eri was probably the first proper atmospheric black metal album I ever came across. It took a couple of years before I actually took a liking to the genre, but the sound of Alrakis definitely left a positive impression when I originally found the band. Now coming back to the album I honestly still find it and its outer space theme to be quite intriguing. 

The album consists of 6 relatively long main tracks of which two are just purely instrumental/ambient. There is not a huge amount variation between the tracks but that is a part of the album’s magic as it allows every track to link nicely to the next one with a barely noticeable transition between them. The tracks work really well together creating a steady album wide atmosphere filled with feelings of utter coldness and loneliness, - the space actually theme works quite nicely with black metal? 

The thing carrying Alpha Eri is essentially the previously mentioned atmosphere, which in my opinion makes the album easily worth checking out for anyone interested in the genre. As a word of warning I’ll just say that it’s the kind of album you probably need to pay attention to while listening and make sure you are actually in the mood for some atmospheric music, in order to be able to find it enjoyable.