Melodic Power Death Metal?

Norther:
Petri Lindroos - Lead vocals/guitar
Kristian Ranta - Guitar
Jukka Koskinen - Bass
Tuomas Planman - Keyboard
Tony Hallio - Drums

Norther is the band that got me into melodic death metal, plain and simple. I first read about them in Metal Hammer magazine when I visited London a few years ago with my folks on a very un-metal vacation. Seeing as I was still very new to the metal scene back then, I didn't have tattoos, piercings, or even sideburns, one could say I didn't really know what I was getting into. To be honest, when I first listened to the song "Death Unlimited" off the demo CD that came with the magazine, I couldn't listen to it. I wasn't used to the harsh vocals and fierce playing style that this band is known for.
At that point I was probably listening to Metallica's Black Album and other clean-singing bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I hadn't quite made it to extreme metal yet. In a silly way my ears hadn't really "matured" yet to handle such visceral sounding music seeing as this was my first introduction to melodic death, or actually any death metal really. I'm pretty sure at that point I would never listen to bands like Cannibal Corpse or Emperor because they were just too much for my little 16 year old ears to handle... Now look at me, I've seen them both live and hold them pretty highly among my long list of favorite metal bands.

I forced myself to listen to this song over and over, hoping that the next time I would finally get that heart-racing feeling, the jolt of electricity up my spine, and that feeling of every hair on my body standing up as I felt the overwhelming glory like I do now. Unfortunately I didn't. It was only until I saw the music video for the song "Death Unlimited" did I finally feel like I could honestly enjoy this band. And let me just say that that video scared the 16 year old piss out of me when I first saw it. To be honest, I think it was the pure darkness of the video that got me excited enough to genuinely listen to the song again. Seeing the solo actually played also got me to appreciate how cool whammy bars are when they are used correctly. In a nutshell, the "Death Unlimited" music video shows Norther playing in a very dark and creepy warehouse (I swear every god damn metal video is filmed in a dirty warehouse or something), there are very bright lights flashing behind them, and they all look very frightening. Along with their performance, there are short scenes of a man taking pictures of people, scratching out their faces, and getting angrier with each imagine he marks up. As the video continues, this character ends up shaving his head into a mohawk and taking out a handgun, which he uses on a number of things. If my memory serves me, he pistol-whips a guy, kills a baby, kills a woman, ties this random guy to chair, beats the life out of him, and then shoots him in the face. The video comes to halt as this mohawked-psycho douses the tied up dead guy with gasoline and sets him on fire. During all the violent parts of the video are where the solo is put in, which is pretty awesome. Here I am, 16 years old, head-banging and playing air guitar while I watch people getting murdered...I guess you could say I was totally hooked on extreme metal at that point.

One more thing before I get to the album, I know that Children of Bodom was around way before Norther came out and I'm sure Norther is inspired by the "Hatecrew" as well. They both incorporate power metal into their melodic death metal sound, yet I still think the bands are pretty different. Children of Bodom seem to be advancing toward a more thrashy audience with their latest release Blooddrunk, while Norther continue to stay pretty melodic with Death Unlimited and Till Death Unites Us. I haven't really given their latest release N a good listen so I don't really have much to say about it.

Death Unlimited is probably Norther's strongest release so far considering that the album has such a wide variety of playing styles that range from the truly grotesque and ultra-violent to the beautiful grace that only Gothic metal bands like Nightwish are able to create. The beginning of the album starts with a beautifully constructed guitar intro that actually tricks the listener into thinking that this album may be similar to a quiet walk in a deserted garden of mystery and wonder. This is "Night Fall."

However, before you can get comfortable, Tony Hallio's bludgeoning drums gives the listener a nasty shove away from the mysterious garden of peace and into the fiercest of fires. The guitarists of Norther don't waste any time showing off their fast paced strumming and soloing abilities as this song demands a fair amount of speed and precision. "Deep Inside" ends with a really cool guitar duel between Kristian Ranta and Petri Lindroos.

"Death Unlimited" is the beast that haunts your dreams and eats you alive as you struggle to get free of its awesome power. This is by far the strongest track and my favorite as its relentless ultra-violent lyrics and take-no-prisoners attitude give a severe and murderous beat-down to whoever listens. Not to mention Petri Lindroos' demonic guttural growl and high-pitched screeches. Like I mentioned above with the music video, the solo is a fantastic example of good whammy bar usage as Lindroos and Ranta make their axes scream so shrilly that you would think they were actually capturing the sound of murder with their agile fingers.

"Welcome to my world of death and pain
Oh it drives you so insane
I am no blast from the past
Because I'm death and I'm everlast

I'm the future breed, evil and mean
A fucking killing machine
No-one will stay alive and see
They all will die and join me" - Death Unlimited, Death Unlimited.

Moving on, "Chasm" slows the tempo down a bit, but continues with the ferocity of the two previous tracks. This is one of those songs that really emphasizes Norther's existence as a melodic death metal band because of the eerie yet beautiful mesh of dense bass and violin-like playing about 3 minutes into the song. Like "Deep Inside," this song finishes with some speedy guitar shredding.

The vibe I get from listening to "Vain" is that I have been pushed back into that mysterious garden that was "Nightfall," yet something is different. The song begins pretty fast-paced but slows down with a groovetastic bass line that makes me feel as though I am lost somewhere dangerous. The keyboardist, Tuomas Planman, really adds a lot of Gothic effects and textures with his white and black keys of death. He can also I guess "shred" or at least play really fast with his keyboard so that he's able to really keep up with the dueling guitarists.

The most power metal inspired track I feel is "A Fallen Star." The way that the song is introduced makes me feel energized all of a sudden even though the last couple of songs have been so dark and evil. There is a small amount of clean singing done by Ranta which is a nice change of pace too. The power metal feel really comes from the way the riffs sound and how the overall song is put together. This song doesn't sound murderous or bludgeoning, instead it's fast-paced like power metal and energetic rather than thrashy. There are more keyboards dueling with guitars in this one as well.

"The Cure" puts you right back into the thrashier side of this album as this track just sounds very raw to me. Not raw in a bad way at all, but not very melodic at all. Very much guitar and drum oriented. It sounds very angry actually, like the listener had escaped the fire for a few minutes only to be shoved back into it head first.


"Day of Redemption" is just a cool title, period. I feel as though this track would satisfy any battle scene of any action movie. Or at least be something to play as people are getting themselves ready to annihilate foes, regardless of whether they're protagonists or antagonists. Needless to say, I would call this song very epic. There's no other way for me to describe it really, you just have to hear it.

If you were hoping for a small breather, this would be it. "Beneath" is basically the intermission of this album as it follows the same path as "Nightfall." It's mellow and gentle unlike the rest of the album. It's the slight scent of a delicate flower blooming in the garden of mystery. Don't worry though, that flower is quickly crushed.

"Hollow" is probably the other awesomely strong track on this album that I really enjoy blasting for prolonged periods of time. Nothing but very fast tempos and demonic vocals coat this track with buckets of fresh blood. There are also some cool chanting parts that make it sound extra brutal at times along with a quasi-break down that introduces the keyboard/guitar shredding mayhem that Lindroos, Ranta, and Planman are obviously so notorious for. It's so great how well the guitars and keyboards fuse together to make an impossibly technical yet melodic display of soloing power.

"Nothing" is like the one song on the album that has a really emotional side to it. Most of the songs have been comprised of murderous intentions or spite for the ignorant. "Nothing" on the other hand reminds me of songs like "My Curse" sung by Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage because the lyrics inspire me to do something other than thrash around and pretend I can play as fast as Ranta or Lindroos. This is basically the final chance to escape the fiery pits of hell by being somewhat sentimental.

"I fear the darkness that makes me blind
There's nothing I can feel
These tears are nothing without you
I'm nothing without you" - Nothing, Death Unlimited.

The final song on the album is "Going Nowhere," which is a pretty good finisher to such an amazing album such as this. It blends all of the aspects of this album into one by using complex keyboard structures along with some cool guitar solos. The drumming and bass are also in perfect harmony, which gives the listener a nice balance of crushing speed and brutality. After hearing the ending solo it really doesn't matter whether you're impaled by a large burning spike in hell, it's safe to say that this journey has been pretty badass.

I almost forgot, there's a pretty good cover of Megadeth's "Tornado of Souls" after "Going Nowhere." It's a decent cover. That's all.

All in all, I'd say this album is more than worth checking out, not just because it's essentially what got me into the extreme metal scene, but because it's a great example of GOOD melodic death metal. It's also good to see that Norther isn't afraid to experiment with such opposites like energetic power metal and ultra-violent melodic death metal. This turned out way longer than I thought, hopefully I didn't lose anyone back there...