Artist: Kaikkivaltias
Title: Routaa ja rautaa
Type: EP
Label: Digital / Canti Eretici
Another day, another band and album I haven’t a clue what they mean due to my terrible monolingual status, for which sincere apologies. But perhaps Google is accurate and this is ‘Frost And Iron’ by Almighty? Anyway this is a one man project from Finland by one Magus Olaus with apparently medieval themes to its black/heavy metal.
Opener ‘Myrsky’ simply storms in; an absolute clatter of drumss and powerful riffing surging through the breach. The riff and vocals are black metal. The melody is cold and harsh but also has that little veneer of heavy metal glistening on the edge. The drumming though just pushes on an its loose (in a fine way) feel keeps everything raw and organic and just bursting with energy. We get a fairly sudden interlude; synths in a ds style but the riff just rises up and reaches those high tremolo spheres and then an acoustic, almost flamenco moment before the unkillable heavy metal spurs itself on into the end stretch. This is one of those songs where the kitchen sink does appear to be chucked in and, yet, it is also utterly magnificent. The way the acousticv work is woven into the metal ending is superb, bringing the whole thing together and the enthusiasm is blazing.
A short and again dungeon synth interlude later, ‘Routaa ja rautaa’ spits out a gnarly spiked ball of black metal but this time the traditional metal feel is much stronger; sped up for sure but the feel and the touch and the tempo changes bring that glorious sway and swagger that metal has in its dna. The long structure of this sone (like the opener, more than eight minutes) allows Magus to follow a progressive (in a very metal sense) route with twists and tempo changes but the skill is how these branchings always are brought back together, pushing through into another hook riddled melody and driving riff.
Another short bridging piece of music and then THE most heavy metal guitar straight out of the NWOBHM rides out. ‘Teräksen taika’ (the magic of steel?) You can see the fists pumping already, the heads shaking. Clean vocals too, just to complete the metal circle. They may not be Dio or the human air raid siren but they have, again, fine character and they work adding an almost doom touch, a feel of some legendary world. It’s a cracking bit of heavy metal, spot on attention to detail. The perfect tone to the solos included needs a mention as well. Fantastic indeed.
We close with (and thank the gods for cut an paste here) ‘Valtakuntani siluetti laskevan ilta-auringon syleilyssä III’ which may or may not translate to something akin to a Bal Sagoth title but I hesitate to trust any translation I found.. More than eleven minutes. And it opens with a lovely, understated but evicative bit of dungeon synth style keyboards. Slow, atmospheric and epic. It actually does have a slight touch of Bal Sagoth to it; far less bombastic but that way they had of building the scene with the gradually adding and layering of the melody and sounds, the kettle drums, the held moments, the spoken word moments. The guitar flutters up, a bridge for the atmosphere to build upon. Then it takes centre stage alone, and the rumble and the glorious melodic riff rushes in, an absolute deluge of epic beauty and rich atmosphere. This is music to ride off into the sunset to, our heroes victorious but new adventures await somewhere over there, where the sun is setting. Damn it is so beautiful.
Is it eccentric? Yes. Does it work? Absolutely. Is this why we love bands like this? Of course it bloody is! There is huge personality here, a singular vision and a truly epic ride. This is only their second EP alongside one split and there are so many ideas bursting to come through. I genuinely can’t wait to see where this project goes as, from this they have the vision and the talent to be very very special indeed.
Gizmo
https://kaikkivaltias.bandcamp.com/music
https://cantiereticiproductions.bandcamp.com/album/routaa-ja-rautaa
Walking The Liminal Space 