RoD header

Translate

maneatingtree harvest
Artist: The Man-Eating Tree
Title: Harvest
Genre: Dark Rock
Release Date: 25th November 2011
Label: Century Media


Album Review

Not having heard THE MAN-EATING TREE previously, I was at first dubious when I saw the genre category. Most of Rock, frankly, these days sucks - either it’s bands recycling its old ideas, sounding generic like hell or it is popsters playing Rock in hope of having a harder edge and out comes Phony Rock. Many of the offshoots don’t do any better, take Punk Rock - not only so much of that is generic, but a lot of it is again phony in terms of nice boys trying to inject a bit of Sid Vicious into themselves to look cool and wild, but castrating the spirit of Punk in the process. Gothic Rock - a lot of it is a recycling machine again and there’s only so much of THE CURE wannabes you can take. Etc. - the list goes on... So as I listened to ‘Harvest’, second album by Finnish dark rockers, with trepidation and expectation to be bored to death, I was pleasantly surprised. What has elevated it?

They try to actually say something, they try to look for some new ideas - thicker yet at the same time softer guitar sound did it - it has Metal sensibilities without harshening the music, not bending to sound as American as possible, but allowing in “The Finnish romanticism and wistfulness are definitely there and always will be.” (Vesa Ranta - drums). Though of course it’s still accessible, but the point is, they sound genuine and more appealing than much of the genre I’ve heard in some time. Songs like ‘Exhaled’, ‘Like Mute Companions’ illustrate it the most, and they’re epic on top of being interesting, the guitar solos are not something you’ve heard already ad nauseam. Few more songs to mention are ‘Incendere’, a song that changes tempo superbly and above the soundscape shows the emotiveness they can get into. The other song is ‘Karsikko’, which is a beautiful instrumental, closing this surprisingly wonderful album. It also shows their connection to nature truly well, it’s evocative of that for sure. If you were losing your faith in this genre like me, your faith will be restored.


Tracklist

01. Harvest Bell – 2:11
02. At The Green Country Chapel – 6:09
03. Code Of Surrender – 5:32
04. Armed – 3.50
05. Like Mute Companions – 5.42
06. Exhaled – 7.57
07. Down To The Color Of The Eye – 6.49
08. Incendere – 4.11
09. All You Kept Free – 6.52
10. Karsikko – 4.25


Line-up

Tuomas Tuominen – Vocals
Janne Markus – Guitars
Antti Karhu – Guitars
Mikko Uusimaa – Bass
Heidi Määttä – Keyboards
Vesa Ranta – Drums


Websites

www.themaneatingtree.com / www.myspace.com/officialthemaneatingtree


Cover Picture

maneatingtree harvest


Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10


See also (all categories):

Comments powered by CComment