Kalmah Album: “For The Revolution”

Not wanting to get too long winded I'll keep this short and sweet. First off, I keep hearing people say that Kalmah sounds like this band or that band. The fact of the matter is that I enjoy Kalmah much more than any of them. Amazing drumming, solos that don't sound like the ones in every other song, and impecable musicianship all around. While I really enjoyed "For the Revolution" on the first listen I still liked "Black Waltz" and "Swampsong" a little better. After owning the album for two weeks I've listened to it through about a dozen times and it gets better every time. So if you enjoy speed/thrash/death/melodic metal bands with killer chops and technicality without sacrificing musicality who stay true to themselves without getting boring then you will definitely enjoy For the Revolution and Kalmah's other offerings. Highly recomended.

Ok, Kalmah has always been sweet. My first Kalmah record was "Swamplord" and I've been a fan since. This record is even better than their previous stuff (besides "Black Waltz") because of the guttural vocals being added. It adds a whole other dimension of brutality to Kalmah. So, solid release. But let's talk about these confusing a** lyrics. For starters, they compare Charles Darwin to Adolf Hitler. Uhhh, what? I don't know which Vladimir they slam in their songs but I'm pretty sure it's against some sort of silly communist/socialist ideology, which is cool considering I hate communists. But seriously, why would you compare Darwin to Hitler? I had no idea Kalmah was so religious. There's a lot of references to God creating the world and about how God's way is the only way. Their is also a song called "Outremer" which as you could guess, glorifies the Christian Crusades. I mean, the Crusades were pretty brutal and awesome, but it's just kind of weird coming from Kalmah. There's also a lot of environmentalist garbage thrown in. I mean, the lyrics just don't make any sense unless Kalmah are some sort of tree-huggin' Christians. Did I miss something from their previous releases? Did they find Jesus? I'm not some sort of anti-Christian by any means and I don't care what their beliefs are, just strange. Half of the environmentalist songs have lyrics that would seem to be written by some liberal college freshman after his first class with his pony-tailed, liberal, flip-flop wearing environmental studies professor. A little bit douchey considering there's no scientific evidence that industry is causing a climate change and most of the global warming fanatics have already crawled back under their rocks, defeated. Yet there is a ton of proof that man did, in fact, evolve from apes. But hey, whatever, this Kalmah release is awesome as usual, buy it from Amazon. Five stars. I love these weirdos.

For the Revolution is a blast of keyboard symphonies and amazing guitar hooks. The album is really memorable but lacks the heavier riffing and intensity of its predecessor The Black Waltz. That being said FTR is still satisfying if you would rather be listening to Kalmah's more melodic material.

The middle of the record can fade into the background if you're not paying attention, but it picks up for the last three tracks. A good buy.

Yet another solid release by the dependable quintet. Not that I was expecting anything else.

I'll try to keep this short and not repeat what the last reviewer said. In this album, the lyrics are less abstract and more about war (or anti-war, I should say) and revolution. The title of the review is a line from "Holy Symphony of War", and the title track is an unrelenting brutal-yet-melodic call to rise and revolt. Some lyrics are cheesy/eyebrow-raising (e.g., Wings of Blackening), but I'm not holding that against them... it's melodeath after all :)

The drumming is exceptional as usual. The keys are used in wonderful cohesion with the guitar lines, such as in the track Outremer. One "downside" of the album is that there aren't really any slow tracks (with the exception of perhaps Ready for Salvation), so it's a somewhat energy-sapping 44 minutes.

If you're new to Kalmah, this may not be the best album to start at; Kalmah's high-speed melodic style is exemplified best (in my opinion) in Swampsong where the vocalist uses a (really awesome) lower pitch growl throughout (he switched to traditional death vox in The Black Waltz). For people who (like me) love melodeath but don't much like plain old death metal, start at one of the earlier albums and work your way forward.

Recommended tracks: For the Revolution, Dead Man's Shadow, Wings of Blackening, Outremer, Like a Slave.

A good album from the genera of Folk/Death etc. Catchy rhythm that sounds folky but keeps a death metal edge. The vocals are a bit week in my opinion with little range and zero clarity. This is the first Album from this band I have listened to.