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Fast and furious: with a folky edge. That's my first impression of Finland's Falchion. Singer Juho has a growled vocal style loved by throat sweet manufacturers around the world. Despite this not being my favourite way of singing and the guitar being a touch on the widdly side, opening song "Primitive Again" has a furious energy. You get the idea that the band would be fun live. "Chronicles Of The Dead" is the sound of a metal group having been booked by mistake for a barn dance. They try to temper their heavy guitars and raspy vocals but don't succeed entirely. "Shadows In The Wasteland" has spiralling Eastern-inflected guitars, which perks my interest. Some of the confident riffing leads me to imagine this song as a zombie tribute to Whitesnake.
There's some nimble bass playing, over machine-gun fire guitars and drumming during "Kingdom Of Dust". I'm rarely pleased to hear someone scream, but if you enjoy that sort of thing you should check out this song. My mind wandered at this point and we were halfway through "Desert Breeze" before I realised that that we were onto a new song. Here consistency wins out over innovation. "Shades Of Gray" is more of the same high energy folk and roll. It has an unrelenting puppy dog energy. Fun for a bit, but it gets wearing after a while. There's too much showing off on the guitar. Yes, yes, you can play lots of notes, but can you play the right ones? A brief classical coda is unexpected and hints at what the band are capable of when they turn down the volume. It's over all too soon. "Dying Dreams" has a sea shanty-style rhythm, but otherwise threatens to follow the usual Falchion template. Then, two minutes in, we get a quiet moment with acoustic guitar. It is tantalisingly brief, hinting at what might have been. "Mayhem Machine" is suitably speedy. While it is technically impressive it doesn't linger long in the mind once it's finished. "Evolution In Reverse" is the last song and begins promisingly, with the acoustic guitar that has been used so powerfully elsewhere. Ultimately the indistinct nature of the vocals snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. This singing style does offer a moment of hilarity when Juho seems to sing "I am a Jawa!" While wishing them the best of luck, I have to conclude that Falchion aren't for me. The growled vocals convey neither melody nor meaning to my soul. The band play their little hearts out, but I'm not a big enough fan of this type of music that this CD warrants replaying in my stereo. |
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