Disco de Kalmah: “Black Waltz”

I really like all of Kalmahs previous releases, but they seemed to be lacking in some way; like they were on the cusp of something great but just couldnt push it over the edge. Well now they have. This is the best Melodic Death CD I have ever heard! They simply took the best elements out of every band out there and forged them into something amazing. The synth are a not so in your face version of Children of Bodom, The lead guitar harmonies are a beautiful mixture of Dark Tranquilites fast stacato riffing mixed with the violence and melody of old in Flames. The softer parts alude to my personal favorite 'Insomnium'. This has been the only cd i have been listening to for several weeks now just because there is no reason to listen to anything else. Kalman has perfected the genre! All hail.

Of all Kalmah's albums, the vocals on Black Waltz are the most commanding, and the production value is at its peak. The songs are all complex and layered, and have well crafted transitions throughout. The album positively 'works' together as a whole, with every song contributing its weight, and is easily played straight through. I was a fan of Kalmah from Swamplord and Swampsong, so I pre-ordered Black Waltz off Amazon a few years back. This album was a contender for best metal album of 2006, and is still on my listening rotation; it desreves your attention.

Kalmah and Norther are two examples of the best melodic death metal has to offer. On this album Kalmah explores with more melodies, and not in your face keyboarding, with perfect harmonies and excellent musicianship. If you like real melodic death metal like Dark Tranquility, this is for you. Also, strong recommended Norther.

This album is sooo worth having! I think every Death/Melo Death lover should own this CD and crank the volume, this album is EPIC!

Well, from the first dark, crunchy guitar riff, it's obvious that that this isn't a typical Kalmah album. One of the most standout (and very probably the most controversial) changes lies in the vocal style, which have changed from phlegm-drenched black metal shrieks to low-register "cookie monster" death growls. I'm not a fan of the new vocals (take the terribly under-melodic vocal intro to "Time Takes Us All", for example), but I wasn't a huge fan of the old ones either, so this isn't a breaking issue for me. Eventually I got used to the old ones, but they were very grating for quite a while. The quality and creativity haven't really changed; they've simply switched ends of the spectrum, so this issue really comes down to personal preference. However, a lot more than the vocals changed here.

Kalmah dropped most (all?) of their power metal influences in this album, and adapted to more firmly melo-death territory. The tempos have slowed a bit, and the guitar work has (for the most part; some of their old guitar style remains) converted to a heavier, more riff-based format. One plus is that the bass is given much more room to shine (and a much more audible mix). This, along with vastly improved drumming, which incorporates much more rhythmic variety (especially breaks), give the band a much deeper, darker, more developed sound than that of previous recordings, and the production has vastly improved to boot.

The guitar technicality seems to me to be at a similar level to old Kalmah during the meat of the songs, though the slower tempos and focus on melody may subtract a bit. The rhythm guitar seems to have improved significantly and is much more prominent here, though the lead guitar is a bit less frequently present than old Kalmah. Fortunately the soloing is at least on par with their previous work with regards to both keys and guitar IMO. Unfortunately, the keys sometimes step back a bit in comparison to before (even in mix volume), providing atmosphere and accents more often than the blistering polymelodic work so prevalent before. This is very much a guitar-driven and guitar-focused album. The melodies on this album are excellent and far more appreciable than before, though (to my personal disappointment) most neoclassical elements have been dropped in favor of greater focus on Kalmah's vaguely folkish "swamp" feel/theme.

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In short, Kalmah died and was reborn with this disk; they're still distinctly Kalmah, but their focus, sound, strengths, and perhaps even sub-genre have shifted. Both more melodic and more rhythmically interesting, yet less keyboard-centric and a bit slower, they became a much deeper, darker, and more unified band in my opinion equally good while vastly different.