Wyrd
Kammen
5.5
Synopsis:
It took me so long to review this because after some online research, I discovered how revered this band was on the folk/pagan scene, yet I hear none of that on Kammen.
Review:
Finland’s Wyrd has a long and apparently respected discography, a discography I am unfamiliar with, but after reading many glowing reviews of Heathen, Huldrafolk and Vargtimmen Pt. 2: Ominous Insomnia, I braced myself for some pagan/folk brilliance from this one man (though there is a session drummer) project of vocalist, guitarist, bassist, songwriter Nargoth.
Yet, as I pressed ‘play’ I was greeted with a doomy, slow death metal plod of “The Hounds of the Falls” and its repetitive, unimaginative riffage. Deep growls, somewhat down-tuned guitars, formulaic pace? What the heck? It's not until about six minutes in that we get some of the acoustics and folk clean croons I was expecting, but even then they are short lived and hardly awe-inspiring. It’s almost a sort of Insomnium/Rapture/Katatonia sounding affair, but I soldiered on to see if the other eight tracks were more in line with what I was expecting.
So on to track two, “Cold In The Earth,” a stern, mid paced death metal track with an opening riff that could have come from Massacre’s Promise debacle and a chorus vocal line that’s more Down/Pantera than folky ambient metal. And so it goes on for the rest of the album; simple vaguely somber, doom/death riffage and vocals with the occasional folk/acoustic spurt and willowy croon as heard on the title track, lengthy “Rajella” (17 minutes) or to start “October”, having moments that seem to imbue the more foresty mood and tone of what I was expecting, rather than the heavy, woe is me despondent nature that drips heavily from the majority of the album. A cover of Kataonia’s “I Break” seals the transformation.
Tracks like “These Empty Rooms” and “The Last Time” ultimately show that Kammen is a fairly standard, Finnish styled gothic doom/death metal record with a few piecemeal folky flourishes, and not a really good one when you stand it next to the more recognized names in the genre.
