KORPIKLAANI – “UKON WACKA”
NUCLEAR BLAST (2011)
Rock and Folk music, though seemingly different in nature, have been enjoying a healthy relationship for the last fifty years. What originated as a form of musical experimentation from the likes of legends such as Bob Dylan, The Byrds and Jethro Tull in the early 60s gradually penetrated the strict confines of the extreme metal sound an a whole new genre was born. Finland, through the likes of Amorphis and their legendary 1994 opus “Tales Of the Thousand Lakes”, became overnight the leaders of a brand new scene – a scene that found many young bands and artists ready to provide their support. One such band is the Lahti-based sextet Korpiklaani who are about to release their latest studio album “Ukon Wacka” under the protective wings of Nuclear Blast Records.
Though Folk Metal is not my genre of choice, bands like Skyclad and Amorphis have helped shape my musical upbringing, so I am naturally inclined to support any outfit whose musical orientation is along these lines. I started listening to “Ukon Wacka” with the best of intentions, however, it was only moments after I pushed the ‘play’ button that I started to lose heart. Why? Simply because I found the music on offer not to be heavy enough! Ok, based on the fact that Korpiklaani start as a purely Folk ourfit and then decided to move into the realm of Metal does in a way justify the lack of prominence of the electric guitar, so that is not my issue. My issue is that, though this album features twelve different compositions, the vast majority of them sound exactly the same! It is really as if this band has built a whole album upon a single melody, which, to be honest, is nothing really outstanding either.
The ‘black clouds’ started forming quite early on, in fact the moment I came in contact with the main accordion melody of the opening track “Louhen Yhdeksas Poika”. What we have here is an up-tempo, vocally-driven theme, the likes of which you find at any Metal festival after 01:00 in the evening, when everyone is dead drunk and happy to dance to anything that is thrown at them…way too happy for me! The following tune “Paat Pois Tai Hirteen” is slightly less high in terms of tonality and thus less insulting to the ear, however things will soon turn back to worse with “Tuoppi Oltta” – a three minute track based on the cheesiest of vocal lines. Even though the same vocals almost ruined “Lonkkaluut” the interesting violin & vocal somehow managed to make it come across as a decent composition, something that cannot be said about “Tequila” – a three minue track that, though intended to be entairtaining, simply belongs in the realm of the ridiculous! In the same-titled “Ikon Wacka”, the best song of the album, the band makes a conscious attempt to sound epic, a momentum that is also kept in the heaviest sounding composition of the album, “Korvesta Liha”. More folk sounding tunes will be found in “Koivu Ja Tahti”, while the only instrumental track of the album “Vaarinpolkka” provides another highlight of sorts, leaving the six and a half minute “Surma” to provide an ending to the band’s latest musical endeavour.
It is not often that I come across and album that I find hard to listen to more than once, but this is exactly what I felt when I finished listening to “Ukon Wacka” in its entirety for the first time. Trying to remain objective, and reminding myself of my obligation towards the artists in question, I tried to give it another go, however, much as I tried, I failed to warm to this album. This is a product of a band that simply does not have the skill and imagination to present the listener with something musically challenging – what this album is potentially really good at is entertaining young metalheads at the end of a very long festival, when all the beer has been consumed and when the brain eventually disengages. Sorry, lads – not for me, I’m afraid!
John Stefanis
Rating: **1/2 (2.5/5.0)
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