Once again the Tolkien-admirers abduct us to a journey through the lyrical cosmos of Middle Earth with their fourth opus Evernight. Most of the time the measure is borne, a relaxed atmosphere stands in the foreground this time.
BATTLELORE describe their music as Epic Fantasy Metal (or at least the record label Napalm Records does :)) and this term matches quite well. Unloading arrangements and exalted sentiments dominate the short three-quarters of an hour. Kaisa Joukhi’s characteristic as well as embosomed voice convinces once again. Her male vocal partner Tomi Mykkänen delivers the death metal like grunts. The two artists divide up the vocal work on Evernight at best. Tomi should add some variation to his slightly expressionless and monotonous performance. The whispered verses in Mask Of Flies or Beneath The Waves surprise in respect thereof. This light-bulb-moments Evernight unfortunately offers too rarely.
What about the music’s structure itself? Eh, the group works a lot with changeovers of borne parts and driving rock passages. The keyboard insert to intensify the epic mood appears unobtrusively and therefore appropriately, rarely the named instrument takes on the lead melody. By all means the compositions on Evernight are convenient to relish – but it is not possible to lean back and relax completely, because tracks like Summon The Wolves feature an increased heaviness grade and that’s why the use of hefty guitars and drums does not get a raw deal. We Are The Legions sounds still a little bit more gladiatorial like the title suggests. After a snappy beginning and death metal grunts, Kaisa’s elfish voice inherits the lead again, ere the two deliver a two-way duel.
All in all you can recognize BATTLELORE without any problems. Every fan will like this of course, but the question remains whether the creative development stagnates. Maybe it would be useful to risk the one or other experiment. Of course the band should not change their course completely, but more variation is the magic word. A few songs are good approaches like Into The New World (could the title be a future vision?). This one starts in a dragging way and forces up amazingly. The first minute trails along cumbrously through Middle Earth, until the guitar chords - appearing like a swarm of martially Orcs - let tremble the landscape. Then the rotational vocal play commences again, always loosened by heavier guitar/keyboard elements. In the end I miss the jutting drive to build up the suspense to go up the walls. This kind of music will come across more intense on stage I guess, because some tracks feature the certain groove to bang one’s head, for example the coercive rhythms in The Cloak And The Dagger.
Recapitulating I can congratulate BATTLELORE for their fourth release anyway, the nine featured songs are well composed and arranged, the female voice is distinctive and simply beautiful; the hefty vocal style could alternate a little bit more. In general the drawer called venture could be opened to attach some surprises. Thereby Evernight represents only a good album for me, but I expect plain and simply more mutability, otherwise the danger exists that the songs pass me by unspectacularly.