Artist : Korpiklaani (2003 - present)Album : Tervaskanto (2007)
Genre : Polka-Metal !!
Rating : ***** ***½ (out of 10*)
This Week I'm Listening To...
Tervaskanto (Finnish for "Resinous Stump") is the 4th, and latest, studio album from those Finnish Polka-Metal masters, Korpiklaani. This is the second one of their albums I've managed to find. The first, Spirit of the Forest, was reviewed here .
What's To Like...
As with any Korpiklaani album, Tervaskanto starts out with a drinking song, and continues at a rousing, upbeat pace throughout the 11 tracks. If this CD doesn't make you reach for a pint of good, European, dark beer, you're probably a teetotaler.
The musicianship is again superb. The Folk and the Metal portions are blended together perfectly. And did I mention, there is a bunch of Polka-Metal here.
What's Not To Like...
Unlike SOTF, where the lyrics were all in English, most of this one's in Finnish. That's not a big drawback; if they ever did a concert in Phoenix, I'm sure we'd all just grunt along.
There's not a lot of new directions here. Of course, how many "new" sounds can you give to Polka? It's less musically-diverse than SOTF. And it's only 42 minutes long. C'mon guys, unless you also plan to release this on Vinyl, there's no excuse for anything less than an hour's worth of music.
A Yoiking We Will Go...
Korpiklaani seems to put out an album a year. They already have one ready for 2008, "Korven Kuningas", due out in March. The photos at their website have me convinced that as good as their albums are, they are probably even more fun in concert. Alas, it doesn't appear that they'll be doing a North American tour in 2008, so I s'pose I'll just have to talk Liz into vacationing in Helsinki this summer.
But I digress. Tervaskanto is another fine release by the Yoiking Finns of Korpiklaani. We'll give it 8½ stars, and save up our money for their 2008 offering.
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