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Kiuas: The spirit of Ukko

10/07/09 || GardensTale

A while back I finished off a review of these guys’ latest with the words: “Just pick up Spirit of Ukko and pretend they split up after that album.” Well, to really underline that advice, let’s take a look at Kiuas’ debut, shall we?

Their actual musical style hadn’t changed much between their latest album and their first, and so once again, “The spirit of Ukko” walks a curious edge between power metal and melodic death metal, not fearing thorough poundings with double bass drums right from the very start. There’s some influences of folk in a bunch of songs and there’s some liberal use of keyboards here as well.

All this has probably turned off 90% of the readers here, but unjustly so. The common power metal gayness is left far behind. There’s no grating falsettos on this disc, no high-tuned overpolished guitars, the keyboards hardly ever take over the melody and turn it into a techfest, and even when they do, it never becomes painful to listen to. Instead, the vocals sound more like they’ve been lifted from an aggressive heavy metal band (not eschewing getting close to growls or screams), the guitars are generally downtuned aside from the high-speed solos and the keyboards are used more for atmosphere, sprinkling folkishness here and there.

The power here is in the songwriting. While there is some variation in quality throughout the album, the average is pretty damn high. Opening up with the title track, we’re treated to a huge wall of pounding guitars, pummeling bass drums and supporting keyboard sprinkles. Everyone loves sprinkles. It’s a excellent showcasing of the band’s ability to balance all those different elements in their music. Though the next two tracks are slightly weaker, the fun returns with “Warrior soul”, where both the vocalist during the catchy chorus as well as the guitars during the solos get a chance to show off, and I fucking love it.

After the fantastic “Across the snows”, arguably the most ‘brutal’ track on here (it’s as brutal as power metal gets anyway), fades out from its pounding Finnish finale, it’s time for the obligatory ballad, but even “Thorns of a black rose” isn’t all that bad despite the silly title and lyrics. It stays catchy and the pounding guitars still please the ear half the time. Saving the most ‘epic’ song for the finale, Kiuas manages to round off the album nicely as well, creating a good balance to keep things interesting throughout the disc.

So don’t let the power metal label fool you: there’s thrash bands gayer than this. Kiuas had found a very nice niche of their own and delivered an album that gracefully balances melodic elements, an epic folk feel and pure headbangable poundings. Any power metal fan should get this; others might want to give it a try as well, you just might get a nice surprise.

9 warrior spirits riding sleeplessly across the snows under crying roses until they reach the shore out of 10.

Information
Released: 2005
Label: Spinefarm
Website: www.myspace.com/kiuasweb
Band
Ilja Jalkanen: vocals
Mikko Salovaara: guitars, 7-string kantele, harsh vocals
Teemu Tuominen: bass
Atte Tanskanen: keyboards
Markku Näreneva: drums

Tracklist
01. The spirit of Ukko
02. On winds of death we ride
03. No more sleep for me
04. Warrior soul
05. Until we reach the shore
06. Across the snows
07. Thorns of a black rose
08. And the north star cried

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