NORTHER MIRRORS OF MADNESS
Century Media - 2003
By Rodrigo Escandon
Mirrors of Madness is the second release by the Finnish band Norther but it is actually the first time I have heard them. This has been a band that I have meant to check out because they were constantly recommended to me as a band to check out and I am glad that I finally have had the opportunity. Mirrors of Madness is a fast and melodic slab of Finnish melodic death metal.
Sounding very alike to fellow countrymen Kalmah and Children of Bodom, Norther are able to stand out from those other two bands and carve out their own territory. They are not as overblown as Children of Bodom and they are not as dark or aggressive as Kalmah, they definitely sit in the middle and use a combination of those mentioned bands to create their own sound. At times they also sound if Sonata Arctica played heavier, faster and just more aggressive. If you have not noticed by now, Norther definitely has that Finnish sound in their music.
Now admittedly, one may find nothing really fresh or innovative about Mirrors of Madness but the band plays with so much energy and confidence that it makes it a very highly enjoyable songs like Of Darkness and Light that features a great keyboard melody in the opening, one cannot help but to want to listen to the album more than once. With other songs like the aggressive Unleash Hell with its slower and deliberately paced chorus and Blackhearted is an energetic opening track that surprised me with the way it slows down just 30 seconds into the song but it quickly picks up the furious pace and it features a great chorus and excellent solos. The only negative I have is with the song Dead and that is because the guitar riff that starts off the song, sounds exactly like the main riff of Bullet Ride by In Flames. Every time I hear Dead, I am reminded of Bullet Ride and I have to skip it. The similarity is just too obvious not to hear it.
As an added bonus to the US release, there is a CD-Rom video of Mirrors of Madness that is not quite impressive but given the budget the band must have had to make it, I can understand why it looks the way it does. Basically, you have Norther standing on a hill, with each member playing their instrument and the camera switching from each member. Not too creative and it looks kind of cheesy when Petri is singing because it just does not look real but again, I understand why it looks like this.
This is an excellent release and it just shows how there is another promising young band attempting to take melodic death metal to a new and more exciting direction
Century Media Website
Norther Official Website
Century Media - 2003
By Rodrigo Escandon
Mirrors of Madness is the second release by the Finnish band Norther but it is actually the first time I have heard them. This has been a band that I have meant to check out because they were constantly recommended to me as a band to check out and I am glad that I finally have had the opportunity. Mirrors of Madness is a fast and melodic slab of Finnish melodic death metal.
Sounding very alike to fellow countrymen Kalmah and Children of Bodom, Norther are able to stand out from those other two bands and carve out their own territory. They are not as overblown as Children of Bodom and they are not as dark or aggressive as Kalmah, they definitely sit in the middle and use a combination of those mentioned bands to create their own sound. At times they also sound if Sonata Arctica played heavier, faster and just more aggressive. If you have not noticed by now, Norther definitely has that Finnish sound in their music.
Now admittedly, one may find nothing really fresh or innovative about Mirrors of Madness but the band plays with so much energy and confidence that it makes it a very highly enjoyable songs like Of Darkness and Light that features a great keyboard melody in the opening, one cannot help but to want to listen to the album more than once. With other songs like the aggressive Unleash Hell with its slower and deliberately paced chorus and Blackhearted is an energetic opening track that surprised me with the way it slows down just 30 seconds into the song but it quickly picks up the furious pace and it features a great chorus and excellent solos. The only negative I have is with the song Dead and that is because the guitar riff that starts off the song, sounds exactly like the main riff of Bullet Ride by In Flames. Every time I hear Dead, I am reminded of Bullet Ride and I have to skip it. The similarity is just too obvious not to hear it.
As an added bonus to the US release, there is a CD-Rom video of Mirrors of Madness that is not quite impressive but given the budget the band must have had to make it, I can understand why it looks the way it does. Basically, you have Norther standing on a hill, with each member playing their instrument and the camera switching from each member. Not too creative and it looks kind of cheesy when Petri is singing because it just does not look real but again, I understand why it looks like this.
This is an excellent release and it just shows how there is another promising young band attempting to take melodic death metal to a new and more exciting direction
Century Media Website
Norther Official Website
