Battlelore – Doombound

Releasedate: 28-01-2011; Label: Napalm Records
By: Elvira Visser

Battlelore is a Finnish band that was founded back in 1999 when Jyri and Mikki joined forces. Battlelore plays a mix between gothic, folk and power metal, simply put as fantasy metal. The female vocals of Kaisa Jouhki are used to create this dreamlike atmosphere, with her elvish vocals which sound delicate and soft. These, mixed with the harsh screams of Tomi Mykkänen. Again this contrast works really well. Although I must admit that personally I feel Kaise must not be on the foreground, she should add that little extra to the harsh screams from Tomi.

With “Doombound” the Finns of Battlelore return once again to the stories of J.R.R Tolkien and his legendary Middle Earth. This time the theme is about Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin, and in particular the story of Turin Turambar. Yet again the album is very fairytale like. On this album they asked the young cellist Markus Vuoristo to make the songs even more fantasy like. Also Keyboard player Maria can be heard on flute on this album. On this album they sing one song in Finnish “Kärmessurma” which means something like Snake-death. To me this album has very nice riffs and nice catchy melody lines. At moments it is calmer then their previous but at other moments it has a bit extra. All over I get the feeling that the band has worked longer on this album to really create an album where each song is connected not only by the story behind it. Nice album in the line of their previous work.

Line up:
Kaisa Jouhki – Vocals
Tomi Mykkänen – Vocals
Jussi Rautio – Lead guitars
Jyri Vahvanen – Guitars
Timo Honkanen – Bass
Maria Honkanen – Keyboards, Flute
Henri Vahvanen – Drums

Links:
Battlelore Official