Keep on Galloping!

Turns out the torrent was legit and all of the songs are present, in excellent quality. While I haven’t been through the entire album and taken notes, I can say that the album is as good as any Korpiklaani album, and that is also its biggest problem.

Korven Kuningas retains the usual, unique Korpiklaani sound, rich with violins, accordions and raspy vocals I’m still not very fond of. Still, the songs sort of grow on you with repeated hearings, thanks to their raw catchiness.

And by the way, Korven Kuningas means “King of the Woods”, which is what Korpiklaani claims is a nickname given to Finnish lumberjacks. Not a bad name, and Korpiklaani says that the album is a tribute to them, too!

I listened to Keep on Galloping first on Songza, and it’s an excellent song, perhaps one of the best on the album, maintaining a unique melody and a great riff. Most of the other songs, however, sound more or less similar, which is why I really hope Korpiklaani adds more variety in their next album, or adopts a new twist to their music.

I see that some of the songs have made their way to Songza, so here are their links:

• Tapporauta
• Metsamies
• Gods on Fire
• Paljon On Koskessa Kivia

Korven Kuningas

I see that Korpiklaani is coming out with a new album in 10 days, named “Korven Kuningas”, the meaning of which escapes me, but I have no doubt that somebody at DarkLyrics will help me solve out.

I’ve found a torrent of it here, and am downloading it now (at a shameful 1-digit speed, for some reason) – it’s in a RAR file, so I’m not too sure if its real or not. I can’t imagine a person so vile that he would release a fake of a comparatively non-famous Folk Metal band…

Wikipedia also lists that a video for Metsämies was/is to be released in 2008, but I didn’t find a link on YouTube, and if it isn’t there, it’s nowhere. Hope it comes out soon, though – I love Korpiklaani’s videos.

I also like the album art – while it has that annoying antler-horn-dude mascot, he seems at least bearable, perhaps a little cool. The album art has been hand-painted, which is perhaps why it looks so complete and well-done (all the others were done in Photoshop and looked terrible, except the first two – Voice of Wilderness looked great).

I see that a single for “Keep on Galloping” is out – I’ll go check it out now.

Awesomest Metal Video ever: Korpiklaani – Wooden Pints

This has to be the awesomest Metal video ever. I don’t know if it was made this way intentionally, but it certainly, well, got me ecstatic. I love the way the violinist barges out in the beginning. The entire video is so full of win.