They Will Return

On their incredibly effective first album (Swamplord), Kalmah blend Children Of Bodom and traditional heavy metal to create an aural tapestry woven of the finest cloth (whooaww !!!). Now it is the arrival of They Will Return, their second effort. Aah, the famous second record - understand famous as "talent proof". Following the receipt of Hatebreeder (Children Of Bodom, one of the best melodic death metal albums of all time), one could imagine that Kalmah has become a clone of the Finish reaper. Not at all. But on the other hand, I am wondering if these comparisons haven't put the band under severe pressure as this album sounds like ... a new path taken by the band. You gonna tell me the band changed its line-up, so it explains the difference between the two records. I agree because any line-up change always means different tastes, new musical direction and ... new band. While the name of band is the same, we are far from the quality of Swamplord. On their first full length release, Kalmah incorporated melody and huge waves of emotion to form an ocean of sound which swallows the listener whole. Here the first word that come to my mind is "tasteless". Worst, Kalmah sound now like all these tons of underground black/death melodic metal band. You listen to one record, you know all of them by heart (like these sex films). Where is the originality ? Gone. Where is the magical potion combining hate, violence and melody ? Also gone. What remains is a conventional tasteless underground product. This unenthusiastically awaited follow-up starts in fact like a bomber : the first track, Hollow Heart, is so good, so wonderful that the listener puts high expectation for the rest of the record. However, each following song is less impressive, less melodic, less accomplished and all the magical feelings generated by the first song disappear track after track. Don't misunderstand me, the album is not that bad, but if we compare the progression of Children Of Bodom - Finland's finest melodic death metal band - between their first and second record, we all agree Children Of Bodom made a huge progression. Here I would rather say that Kalmah has done an "impressive stagnation", not to say regression. This is just the second record of course and the next one - the third and most important one for the band - will have to correct the mistakes made on They Will Return. Let's hope the new lineup is able to "recreate" the fast, furious & melodic Kalmah we get used to on their first attack. Not an easy mission my dear readers ... but considering Kalmah musicians (some of them) are also playing for Eternal Tears of Sorrow, I think it is not an impossible mission.