Artist: Korpiklaani
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2011
Length: 43:58
Rating: 4/5
Finland’s forest-dwelling party animals Korpiklaani, already well known to the Slovenian metal crowd, dropped their 7th studio album just the other day, on Friday, February 4, 2011, and named it Ukon Wacka, after an old pagan sacrificial feast.
The band got going way back in 1993 under the name Shaman, then changed it to Korpiklaani in 2003 and put out their debut Spirit Of The Forest a year later, which went down extremely well with folk/pagan metal fans. Nine years on, their subject matter hasn’t budged an inch – boozing, forests and partying. Their melodies, with the accordion, fiddle and whistle popping up all over the place, won’t let you keep your body from moving at least a little. And this time is no different.
The fresh release serves up 10 songs with Finnish titles (the sextet used to lean more toward English than they do now), and the curiosity is the extra track, a cover of the Motorhead classic Iron Fist – interesting!
If the previous records sang about beer and vodka, this time it’s tequila’s turn, with the song Tequila on the record, which is also the first single from the new, fairly short album, and the video has already been shot and released! The song ‘Päät Pois Tai Hirteen’ is special too, dedicated to the Finnish rock band Peer Gunt, who Koriklaani reckon have been unfairly overlooked on the rock map to this day.
The new album doesn’t offer anything especially fresh, but drinking along to the fun sounds of folk metal is reason enough to grab your copy of Ukon Wacka and head to the one-day “festival” Paganfest 2011, which stops at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna on March 23 this year, where Korpiklaani will be the stars of the night, with Unleashed, Moonsorrow, Varg, Arafel and Kivimetsän Druidi on the stage before them.
Lineup
Jonne Järvelä – vocals and guitar
Jaakko “Hittavainen†Lemmetty – violin and jouhikko (a Finnish bowed lyre)
Kalle “Cane†Savrijärvi – guitar
Matti “Matson” Johansson – drums
Jarkko Aaltonen – bass guitar
Juho Kauppinen – accordion
Tracklist
1. Louhen Yhdeksäs Poika
2. Päät Pois Tai Hirteen
3. Tuoppi Oltta
4. Lonkkaluut
5. Tequila
6. Ukon Wacka
7. Korvesta Liha
8. Koivu Ja Tähti
9. Vaarinpolkka
10. Surma
11. *Iron Fist
*… bonus track (Motorhead cover)
