Force Majeure
Gatecrusher
5.4
Far be it for anyone to say that Finland hasn't produced its share of good metal. From acts like Children of Bodom, Impaled Nazarene, and Rotten Sound, are bands routed in style formats that would be classified as black, death and yes even grind. Rarely have I heard of power metal bands coming from Finland. Force Majeure, is one of those bands.
After doing a little research, it came to my surprise that Force Majeure is a fairly young power metal band from Helsinki Finland. Helsinki Finland is most indefinitely not a power metal capitol of the world, but alas it is refreshing to hear a band from Finland, playing this style of music.
The most noticeable influence on this demo would have to be Iron Maiden. The first track "The Gatecrusher", has a very "Wickerman" Iron Maiden type vibe. One of my gripes is also one of the band's strengths. Force Majeure's vocalist Riku Turunen hits all of his midrange notes very well, but there are times in certain songs like "Distant, Silent,Gone", where the notes go too sharp and kill the feel of the song. I do like the fact that Turunen has a very distinguishable Finnish accent in his voice, which makes the overall vocal sound a little different than most. I definitely like the bass work done by Tuomas Vaananen, it is quite tight and meticulous, although I do feel that Steve Harris wrote very similar bass lines 20 years ago. The guitarwork is text book Iron Maiden in melody, and same song writing structure as well. This is a very "Verse, Chorus" driven metal band.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad demo. It is played very well, and you can tell that Force Majeure are going to hopefully become a better band as far as songwriting and musicianship goes. The average age of the musicians in this group are 22 years old. The power metal sound of this group would seem much older. It is impressive that such a young group of individuals can play this style so well. However, being that the style has been done before leads me to this conclusion. Is Force Majeure's The Gatecrusher demo this worthy of a purchase? Yes and no - Yes, to those new to the style of power metal, that have not heard Iron Maiden, Helloween, Rhapsody, or Judas Priest before. No, to those out there that swing their metal swords, ride mythical dragons, and befriend dark unicorns.
This is a good demo, fairly good material, and this band is going to get better. To what level of stature they arise to falls on their shoulders. Good Luck F.M!
