Kalmah
For the Revolution

May 2008
Released: 2008, Spikefarm Records
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Let´s get to the point straight away: Finland´s swamplords, Kalmah´s 5th album titled FOR THE REVOLUTION, can be considered a great album from them in many ways. First off, since their previous album, THE BLACK WALTZ released in 2006, the band has done their best to get rid of most of their clearest ´Bodomesque´ influences, which they were accused of on their 1st three albums. Secondly, no doubt, the members of Kalmah have grown together as a really tight playing unit, having a true understanding for writing songs that are meant to stick in your brain with the first shot. To their credit, FOR THE REVOLUTION contains many of the songs that both you and I easily absorb in our minds. Thanks for keeping the song structures simple, but still varied and complex enough as well. The right balance for keeping the songs memorable and catchy, has obviously been found at some point of their song writing process, which is obviously the thing that fuels the Kalmah machine for keeping things even more determinedly going on.



Secondly, it´s really tough to find any weak links in the songs on FOR THE REVOLUTION. I mean, we all love Kalmah´s way of churning out their songs, don´t we? Most of the time the tunes on the band´s newest opus are relatively fast-paced and in-yer-face, but always having a certain amount of nicely done melodies for balancing out sort of a "this-is-way-too-fast-and-hectic-shit-for-my-liking" impact on its listeners (check out "Ready for Salvation". It gushes both beauty and sorrow - what a beautiful yet heavy song indeed!) Somewhat ´ace-stuff´ on FOR THE REVOLUTION could also be crowned such songs as the opener and title track, "For the Revolution", being almost breath-takingly fast when the guys decide to switch to their ´rocket-ride´ mood, "Holy Symphony of War" for including an absolutely friggin´ kick-ass instrumental part in it, kinda old Bodom-inspired "Wings of Blackening" - and let´s mention one more (to increase your hunger for this opus, ha!), "Outremer", which actually has all of those vital and basic elements which Kalmah are musically all about: melody, untamed aggression, a good sense catchiness and overall sort of a burning endeavor to drop their listeners on their knees by the fact how talented musicians they can actually be whenever it´s time for a new Kalmah album.



FOR THE REVOLUTION is not an exceptionally revolutionary album from Kalmah by any means, but still a great slab of a melo-death metal album with many cool things in it. So, by all means - check it out!