Shuffled Playlist Random Thought: 2-26-11

Time must have gotten away with me. I apparently forgot to do this last week. Thanks for reminding me, jerks. Unless you don't care and that's fine too. Anyway let's see if something unmetal shows up on the shuffle shall we? After the jump.

Battlelore's Storm of the Blades. Not bad for the morning as I type this. It's off their 2005 release Third Age of the Sun which might be my favorite album. Speaking of which did anybody pick up the newest release Doombound? And if so what did you think of it.

This band needs to tour out here along with Turisa. And then have a jam all decked out in their costumes. Not sure if a club could handle that many bodies playing metal mixed with hurdy gurdys and violins but it should be fun.Here is a Youtube clip of the track I mentioned in the meantime.

Battlelore's Doombound Releases in the U.S. Today

That's right, yet another band we have been promoting since last year is releasing their concept album Doombound today in the good old U.S. of A. Buy it in bunches so they can actually come and tour here. If you listened to the interview it's this guy's dream.

Tomi Mykkanen


Make it come true. You can also purchase the digital copy from the widget on the main page.

Draeden's Succubus Showcase: Kaisa Jouhki

For February, my choice for the Spotlight is Kaisa Jouhki of Battlelore. I've always loved the sweetness to her voice and she's as beautiful as any Elf, which works perfectly for the Tolkien theme in Battlelore.

It's pretty spectacular how Kaisa's voice is pretty much the polar opposite of Tomi's aggressive and glutteral growls making Battlelore unique in the metal community where most female vocalists have very powerful operatic voices.

It's kinda ironic how the other evening I was watching The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and being vaguely aware that Galadriel was supposed to be so unearthly beautiful you couldn't look upon her without being bewitched, yet they had cast Cate Blanchett for the role. Kaisa would have been a far better choice and she looks more Elvish than human though they'd most likely have to blond her up..

Just as stunning is her voice, and though it's more subdued than most of her peers, it's probably one of the most alluring. She doesn't need to be overbearing vocally; she's perfected her soft and sweet delivery and it's her voice that makes Battlelore so different and so utterly brilliant. I would stop to listen to her sing the phone book. Seriously.

So if you've never heard of Battlelore or Kaisa Jouhki then definitely check out these videos. These song's styles isn't typically what you'd normally get from Battlelore but I really think they showcase her talent and beautiful voice perfectly.


Journey to Undying Lands from Where the Shadows Lie
(with original vocalist Patrik Mennander)





Here's House of Heroes from the album: Evernight





Here is Elves of Lúva from Third Age of the Sun





Back to Where the Shadows Lie with The Green Maid





And from their latest release Doombound, Enchanted!














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Devil's Interview with Battlelore's Tomi Mykannen

Yesterday we sat down and conducted our first interview of the year with vocalist Tomi Mykannen of Battlelore. This interview was unique for us as it was the first phone interview we've ever conducted(Skype if you're really tech savvy).So what better way to kick off the new year in terms of interviews then with a member of one our favorite bands eh? Tomi was a great sport throughout even in the midst of a dropped call at one point and some eye rolling moments from the both of us. In our defense it was 6 in the morning. But Tomi was awesome and answered every question to the best of his ability.

So without further ado please enjoy our conversation with Tomi of Battlelore as we talk about the band, the new album , and Tolkien. You can also download it to listen to at your leisure.



Thanks to Nathan from Napalm Records for the opportunity to do this interview and thanks again to Tomi for spending time with us. Make sure you pick up your copy of Battlelore's new album Doombound(with bonus DVD) when it releases on these dates:

Jan. 26 - Spain, Finland, Sweden
Jan. 28 - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, BeNeLux, Italy
Jan. 31 - rest of Europe
Feb. 08 - Canada, U.S.

Real Time Review: Battlelore's Doombound

A couple of weeks ago I stated that this album would be the last real time review. Well I lied. Sorry about that but it couldn't be helped. Battlelore's new album Doombound releases in January so as a fan this will now serve as the last review for the year and a precursor for things I'm excited about next year. I did a really crappy job of describing this band in my A-Z article on them so let me say to those unaware, this is Finnish epic fantasy metal based on the Tolkien universe. The bandmembers dress like characters from Tolkien's novels on stage and in the midst of all this silliness manage to put out well crafted songs.Tomi Mykkanen handles the male growls and Kaisa Jouhki handles the female lead vocals.So with that out of the way it's time to dive into this album and see what we have in real time....after the jump.

Oddly enough Doombound is the first concept album by the band after six releases of themed music. The story centers around Turin Turambar of the Silmarillion and the Children of Hurin books. If you want to read the backstory you can go to Wikipedia but I really want to get to the music so lets do this.

Bloodstained: Song begins with acoustic intro and then bass and drums kick in as if tribal warriors are marching to battle. Tomi begins singing in clean low vocals. Now to Kaisa. Tomi is singing in a higher register as keyboards give an atmosphere in the back. I hope that's not the best he can do on clean vocals. Kaisa sounds great as usual. She has a linear style of singing but just enough range that it fits great with the music. This is actually a very mellow track overall to start with. Being a concept album I can see why they would choose to have the song be of this tempo.A nice piece though I think Tomi's style of growl is a bit distracting from the track.

Iron of Death: Double bass drums immediately kick in with organ style keys. Tomi's growls are more of a borderline roar. Male harmonizing with another member of the band. Kaisa part comes in. I get the feeling Tomi is playing the part of Turin and Kaisa is playing the part of Nienor.It's hard to say without a lyric sheet. Actually Tomi's part is more interesting then Kaisa in this song. Which is a rarity overall of the bands catalog. Heavy riffs kick in about halfway and it sounds great.Song closes out with Kaisa and yeah overall the song is a bit more interesting then the first.

Bow and Helm: Heavy intro. I always love the drums on Battlelore's music. You always want to march in an army to the cadence. Spoken word intro from Tomi. Tempo speeds up as Tomi starts roaring. Kaisa's part kicks in. So far her parts are very slow tempo on all of these tracks. Not too much variety in her parts. I hope this changes from here on out. Tomi starts speaking in a low voice again.It's hard to understand what he's saying over the punishing riffs and blast beats.I'm so used to long songs these days that the 4-5 minute songs seem to go by really quick.

Enchanted: Another acoustic intro that segues into a powerful riff and keys. Kaisa opens this song this time. So far the best performance by her on the album. The chorus has her and I'm assuming Tomi together. This is actually a beautiful song overall. Damn it. Now Tomi is roaring his part. This song could do without it. It was brief though and goes back to the acoustic passage from the intro. Now the harmonizing chorus. Very nice song overall.

Karmessurma: There is supposed to be one song sung in all Finnish and based off the name this might be the one. Yep. Tomi is singing in his scratchy voice in Finnish. This is actually the heaviest song so far. It borders some folk metal from their contemporaries.I actually like this. Funny how its sung in a foreign language but is the catchiest so far on the album. Kaisa now comes in halfway through and of course the song goes into a slower tempo. Very enjoyable though I understand not a word.

Olden Gods: Opens with fast drums. Tomi roars out his vocals after some riffing. Then back to Kaisa. After the last two tracks this song is sort of unremarkable in comparison. It's not boring per se because so far every song has had multiple changes throughout but nothing that really grabs either.Though Tomi is singing in a tone I wish he would have done more on the album in the chorus here.

Fate of the Betrayed: Cool riff and keys to open this song. Kaisa opens this one. And this song is reminiscent of some songs in the past where she is actually doing memorable phrasings. Very catchy riff involving keyboards on this one. Tomi's vocals aren't quite as memorable on here.

Men as Wolves: Heavy guitar and bass intro. Enter the keyboards which are always fantastic for this band. The music I think is better then the vocal parts in this song actually. Kaisa's part near the end is kind of haunting though her voice is hitting a pitch that is almost annoying if it went on further.

Last of the Lords: Drum and keyboard intro. Both strong suits of this album. Tomi is roaring again. Best roars by him so far in this song. Kaisa's part comes in and its evident she has another female harmonizing with her. It's almost a monotone part though. I think this song could have gotten away with Tomi doing vocals the whole way. Heaviest song on the album thus far.

Doombound: Title track and by far the longest on the album at just over 8 minutes. Cool guitar intro that sounds almost stonerish in a way which is odd. This song needs to pick up if it's going to be this long. Two minutes in and the riff and tempo hasn't changed. This is the dullest song by far. 4 minutes in and its starting to feel like a doom track. Finally the tempo changed....to be even slower. Keys and acoustic guitars with strings. It's a welcome change to earlier in the song though. Second half of the song is better with an emphasis on strings.

Kielo: Last song and the shortest at under 3 minutes. Begins with what sounds like horns and a constant drum beat as if an army is marching in the distance. String arrangements again which may have been prevalent in earlier songs I just didn't notice until now. I think this is the lone instrumental on the album. It's a beautiful piece.



So there we have it. My final impressions is that this is again a solid piece of music as usual with Battlelore. It was produced by Dan Swano so they brought in a heavy hitter to mix this thing and it shows as it does sound fantastic. Overall the album is very interesting but does suffer from dull points with inconsistent vocals from both Kaisa and Tomi. Neither have progressed much over the years in their range and in fact on some tracks takes a step back. I can't say I'm disappointed because I know they were shooting for a different direction with this.Is this a good album as a starter for the Battlelore beginners? It depends on what level of music you like. It is nowhere near as catchy as previous releases but does continue to carry the epic banner in scope. For the listener that is familiar with this genre or is really invested in music this is a good start. If you want more fun and upbeat material I would go backwards in the catalog and start there.

Please do give this band a chance beyond their look in pictures and onstage though because they really do take this music seriously considering the themes. Doombound drops Jan. 28th of 2011 and if you want to hear samples of what I've been listening to you can find them on Amazon.

Rating: 8 Sins out of a 10

Devil Music A-Z: Battlelore

Oh those wacky Finns. Imagine if you will you're perusing Blabbermouth for your daily metal news and you run across a pic like above with a studio update for their album. "Ha Ha, I'm going to watch one of their videos and get a good laugh at this nerd D& D band" you say. And so you watch the video and start laughing at the LARP fest you see in front of you. But you listen to the song and think " Wait a minute, that's actually pretty good". Can you see that happening? No? Well it did....to me.

This is one of those cases that a band should really ditch the imagery and stick with the source material(In this case, Tolkien's Middle Earth) if they wish because they would actually get somewhere with this brand of folk metal. But no, the Finns have to play dress up and play music. Here is some vids of some of my favorite songs after the jump.



This is the video that I first saw of them.


This is off the most recent release


So yeah I do dig this band. Again not so much for the imagery but the actually well crafted songs. If you're curious and want to see more or even buy some stuff you can go here.