Grendel – A Change Through Destruction

Releasedate: 20-04-2009; Label: Firebox Records
By: Elvira Visser

Grendel is a melodic metal band from the capital of Finland, Helsinki. The band was formed back in the year 2000. After releasing 6 demo’s they self-released their debut album “Lost Beyond Retrieval” in 2006. The band played many gigs and did not stayed unnoticed by fans and Firefox. They signed with them and released their second full-length album called “A Change Through Destruction”. The Finnish fans are the first to hear this album as this album was already released in Finland in October 2008. In the first week after its release it went to position 19 in the Finnish charts. Now it is time to show their work to the rest of the world. It is about time that we find out more about this band because they made a very nice CD.

The bands claims to produce the sound of; how Amorphis should sound. The music reminds me of some bands, which I cannot point out but not to Amorphis at all. Well maybe there is a bit of the same keyboard – guitar sound but they bring it in a different way. The CD has a nice flow towards the last track. There is variation in the sounds, room for guitar solos and nice growls from Mikko Virtanen. The combination between the clean vocals from Mika Kivi and the grunts from Mikko work really nice and are quite catchy. One of those tracks that I liked from the start are “Dialog With Pain” with some nice guitar solos and “Trapped Inside” because of the intro and the energy that the track gives me, to nod along with my head. I have to say that this album is very good, and so far I seem to like it more and more when listening. I really think you should listen to this album yourself, I found that they delivered a great job as they are currently stuck in my CD player. The last track Moment of Silence is really a moment of silence….to spend without the growls and vocals towards the end of the CD, the real silence.

The album “A Change Through Destruction” has been recorded in Sonic Pump Studios in Finland, where bands like Amorphis, Finntroll, Ensiferum and Kotipelto also recorded their CDs and mastered at Chartmakers (Lapko, Sonata Artica).

Line Up:
Mikko Virtanen – Vocals
Mika Kivi – Guitar, Background vocals
Jussi Kraft – Guitar
Kari Martikainen – Bass
Juha Terrilä – Keyboards
Jarkko Piipari – Drums

Tracklist: 01. One Desire 02. A Change Through Destruction 03. Dialog With Pain 04. The Deaf Cult 05. Another Link In The Chain 06. Forsaken Shell 07. Quicksand 08. Half-Life 09. Trapped Inside 10. Moment Of Silence

Links:
Grendel MySpace
Grendel Official