Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Norther
Label: Century Media
Released: 2008
Finnish melodic death/power metal outfit Norther has never exactly been known for its originality. Ever since their first released album Dream of Endless War (2002), they’ve been copying, with more or less success, the sound of their Finnish colleagues Children of Bodom. Metal goes through its own cycles of individual genres dying down and surging back, and power metal with harsh vocals, which Norther also play, is slowly but surely nearing its end. It’s never been the most distinctive genre, and maybe only the likes of Kalmah still make good use of it, while Children of Bodom and, yeah, Norther too, with their new, unoriginally titled album N, are slowly running out of steam.
If Norther raised hopes with their second record Mirror of Madness (2003) that they could become something more than just a “copy” of Children of Bodom, the quality of their output has sadly been slowly but steadily declining ever since. N only confirms this, as it may even be their worst release, without a shred of ambition for any kind of musical development. Compared to previous albums, N does rein in the soulless melodic keyboard and melodic passages a bit, but that doesn’t help the record much. Instead, it prefers to treat us to generic riffs, boring keyboard parts and two guitars that mostly just hammer away at simple power chords. The duo of Kristian Ranta/Petri Lindroos (Ensiferum) does occasionally deliver a more interesting guitar line or a passage that sticks in your memory more easily, but it’s far from sticking around. The easiest thing to remember is the melodic middle section of Savior, but sadly there are far too few moments like that. The same duo also handles the vocal lines, where Petri’s harsh vocals and Ranta’s clean ones do create a certain amount of dynamics and variety, but the songs are as alike as two peas in a pod, and getting through the nearly 50 minutes of N is almost impossible. The album is so repetitive, and the songs so utterly unremarkable and so completely lacking in standout moments (the opening My Antichrist and Frozen Angel are maybe the rare exceptions), that listening to it all the way through is a real achievement. Jukka Koskinen (Wintersun) is practically inaudible on bass, and the only truly noticeable progress comes from drummer Heikki Saari, who only joined Norther in 2005 and is on just his second album with the band, but has already shown he can save a song with the occasional interesting transition and “fill”. I can’t help but say that Jukka and Petri both shine much more in their other bands.
I don’t know whether N is such a bad album because the guys have run out of steam, or because of the popularization of the genre that Children of Bodom are “to blame” for, and the resulting urge to please a wider audience. Wherever the problem lies, N is a big disappointment, and Norther will have to try seriously hard in the future to make up for this considerable flop. All eyes are now on Children of Bodom and Kalmah, since both are releasing new records in early April. Let’s hope they had more ideas than Norther.
Lineup
Petri ‘Pete’ Lindroos – harsh vocals, guitar
Kristian ‘Kride’ Ranta – guitar, clean vocals
Jukka Koskinen – bass
Tuomas Planman – keyboards
Heikki ‘Kermis’ Saari – drums
Production
Anssi Kippo
Tracklist
1. My Antichrist 03:24
2. Frozen Angel 04:06
3. Down 03:41
4. To Hell 04:07
5. Savior 05:02
6. Black Gold 03:18
7. We Rock 03:57
8. Always & Never 04:34
9. Tell Me Why 03:30
10. If You Go 03:55
11. Self-Righteous Fuck 04:47
12. Forever And Ever 04:26
