| CD REVIEW Falchion |
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Band: Falchion The Finnish band Falchion started about six years ago by Juho Kauppinen, who is, in mean time, also known from Demonic Cremation and Korpiklaani - back then fifteen years old - and his sixteen year old friend Joonas Simonen. In the beginning the band played covers from e.g. Stratovarius and Amorphis. The debut album came in 2005 (recordings were done one year before), and in 2006 the whole line-up, except for Juho, got replaced. With a renewed line-up (including Korpiklaani-colleague Matti Johansson), Falchion entered the Adamantium Studio in Tampere. Production and mix were taken care of by Jukka Ruostila, who also did the engineering together with assistant producer Jussi Ala-Karvia, while the mastering is done at Finnvox with Mika Jussila (Finland’s number-one master, I guess, when it comes to Finnish Metal). During forty eight minutes, Falchion brings a very catchy and melodic mixture of Death Metal and Pagan / Folk. Unfortunately, Finland does house a few hundreds of this kind of bands, and I don’t know if Falchion is convincing enough to exceed these grey masses. In fact, Chronicles Of The Dead brings nothing renewing in comparison with any former material, and I heard similar stuff several times before. Especially Ensiferum is a band that often comes to mind. Don’t get me wrong: Falchion is a nice band, the members know how to handle their instruments, and the compositions aren’t easy-made products. Besides, the epic, heathen atmosphere is ‘fresh and light’. But the complete lack of having an own face makes me sad, which gets translated in the score. 70/100 Ivan Tibos. |