Negative – Karma Killer

Releasedate: 07-05-2008; Label: Hype Records
By: Nina Mende

One of the most successful Finnish rock acts Negative released their fourth album “Karma Killer” on May 7th. With the previous three albums Negative have topped the Finnish album- and singles charts and toured around the world playing hundreds of shows. At the end of 2007 the band was voted the best Finnish act in MTV’s Video Music Awards, once again showing the size and dedication of their fan base. In January 2008 Negative released “In The Eye Of The Hurricane”, a double-disc DVD covering their career so far.

Since they have a tour coming up in December where I will have an interview with them, I got their latest album and the DVD. So I thought I should tell you about it. Here is the review about the CD:

The new album is quite serious and very personal as well. The songs on the album vary between slow and fast songs, ballads, songs to most likely get stuck in your head and ones that you will just sing along. On two songs you can find female backing vocals. These two songs are “Giving Up!” and “Gravity of Love”. The music is not too mainstream but still very suitable for radio and such. Several songs include great arrangements by strings which make the sound bigger and wider, giving your imagination and mind more room to move. The album artwork is held in blue with Jonne’s (singer) face on the cover. The pictures in the booklet are of landscapes, cities and nature covered by the lyrics or each song on the album. In the middle there’s a band picture with the names on it, on the back there’s just a band picture top and bottom framed in black and blue stripes. The look of it it somehow icey, especially the cover picture, but the music on the album doesn’t sound icey or frozen at all, but it’s not warm either. It is just serious and taken out of life. Everydays problems and happenings are reflecting in the sound. I have listened to it so many times by now, but it starts giving me goose bumps at some songs, because the lyrics are going quite deep. Especially if you have been through anything that the songs are about: Lost the love of your life, stepping on the same step for some time unable to go on for different reasons, broken hearts, unability of letting go, and so on… If you really read through the lyrics — which you can, they are all in the booklet — or simply listen close to them , I am sure you will understand what I mean. No matter whether you like the band or not.

It is a nice fourth album of this Finnish quintet, I really like.

Tracklist: 1. A Devil on my Shoulder 2. Sealed 3. Won’t Let Go 4. Motherfucker (Just Like You) 5. Giving Up! 6. An Ornament 7. Dead As We 8. Anna Simona 9. Lust N’ Needs 10. Gravity Of Love

Links:
Negative Official