Artist: Norther
Title: Circle Regenerated
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 15th April 2011
Label: Century Media
Album Review
NORTHER continue to storm the musical side of Finland with their melodically charged death metal that sounds like a more eased down CHILDREN OF BODOM combined with WINTERSUN while still retaining a sense of heaviness to their music. ‘Circle Regenerated’ is their sixth album to date, and also their longest gap of a release since the 2008 ‘N’. So what has changed? Not too much. Right from the opening track, ‘Through It All’, it starts to feel like BODOM slowed down all over again. The way the vocals snarl (there is a new vocalist here by the way who also helps diversify the band a bit more with his deeper snarls compared to the previous one) and how the guitars have that focus of sounding like keyboards at times during the solos, along with a chugging, melodic atmosphere, is strongly comparable. The only thing that really sets the bands apart from one another are the clean vocals, which sometimes work to beautiful effect such as on ‘Some Day’ - which is so melodic it could be considered progressive metal - as opposed to ‘Break Myself Away’ which sounds a bit rougher and out of place.
The keyboards also seem to have taken a more prominent role. Rather than just chug away in a melodic death metal and thrash hybrid along the lines of bands like IN FLAMES, they add a whole new level of electronic and beautiful atmospheres that bands like CHILDREN OF BODOM wouldn’t dare touch. The track ‘Falling’ features a piano like introduction before jumping to the heavier guitar riffs, but keeps throughout the music and closes on a great combination of background keyboard and the clean vocals. It perhaps may even do a better clean vocal job than ‘Some Day’; by far this is the best track on the album. Slow, almost symphonic outros are what NORTHER seems to be good at such as on ‘Believer’ which has a choir-organic classical feel to it that leads right into ‘Falling’ with great effect. As a whole, NORTHER haven’t really done much as far as progression goes, but it is a step in the right direction at separating themselves from many other mainstream melodic death metal bands while still adhering to their usual sound. ‘Circle Regenerated’ does live up to its name as it ‘recycles’ a lot of material from ‘N,’ but it is certainly a more beautiful assault on the ear hole rather than just sheer guitar and drum aggression.
Tracklist
01. Through It All (03:48)
02. The Hate I Bear (04:06)
03. Truth (04:04)
04. Some Day (04:49)
05. Break Myself Away (04:05)
06. Believe (04:23)
07. Falling (04:21)
08. We Do Not Care (04:16)
09. The Last Time (04:14)
10. Closing In (05:49)
Line-up
Aleksi Sihvonen - Lead Vocals
Kristian Ranta - Guitar, Clean Vocals
Daniel Freyberg - Guitar, Vocals
Jukka Koskinen - Bass, Vocals
Tuomas Planman - Keyboards
Heikki "Kermis" Saari - Drums
Website
http://www.norther.net/
Cover Picture
Rating
Sound: 8
Music: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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