Mirror of Madness [Import]

 

 

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This isn't a bad album by any means, problem is other bands do almost the exact same thing only alot better. Kalmah, Children of Bodom and Emperor (All of whom Norther borrows from liberally) play a similar style with better proficency. The singer sounds somewhat like Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir and the music sounds like a cross between the bands mentioned above. The original themes of this album are found the lyric concepts/layout and the keyboards. The lyric booklet reads like it would look in the mirror, with every other song wrote backward and the lyrics themselves focus on personal torment. The keyboards provide interesting contrasts between themselves and the black metal vocals. Overall, if you already own the best from the bands mentioned above, Mirror of Madness isn't a bad buy, but otherwise I'd get those first.

Finland definately has some great bands that comes out from its fridgid temperatures yearly. Amorphis, Children of Bodom, Sentenced, Kalmah, are just a few. However, when I purchased Norther's Mirror of Madness, I found yet another great album and band from Finland.
Now, I should get this out of the way first and foremost before going on. Norther does sound like Children of Bodom on Bodom's album Follow the Reaper, but only in two aspects. Number one, the vocals. The vocals definately sound like Alexi Laiho, I mean, almost indestinguishable. Not that this is a bad thing, but people could get confused if they don't know who Bodom is to begin with. Like COB, Norther uses a dual guitar attack with melodic and harmonizing keyboards. Unlike Children of Bodom however, Norther uses their keyboards more as a seperate independent entity, meaning the keyboards are more in the background then in Children of Bodom, who uses their keyboards heavily to influence the guitars, especially the leads. Norther uses the keyboards not to necessarily flow with the guitars, but to compliment them in certain fills, and to be used as a completely seperate instrument.
As I mentioned eariler, vocalist Petri Lindroos sounds almost exactly like Alexi. However, he also plays lead guitar, like Alexi...but hes an excellent guitarist with some blazing solos on this album. Now even though he even looks like Alexi, could probably pass as his long lost brother, right down to the black painted finger nails, this is only a very eerie thing I am pointing out to anyone who watches the bonus video that comes on the USA version.
Now the music itself. Norther's music is much more mid tempo and mid paced then bands like Kalmah and Children of Bodom. Where as Kalmah is more black metal, and Bodom is much more fast paced thrash, Norther goes inbetween and blends very nicely, a mixture of mid paced, melodic thrash black metal. The guitars, like a lot of Finland bands, sounds like there is a lot of chorus or reverb on them to give them that special "Finland" sound. Even though some of the songs on this album are mid paced, Norther does pick it up pretty damn fast in songs such as "Blackhearted" and the title track "Mirror of Madness". The bass on this album is heavy hitting, with some impressive lines that compliment the hammering drums nicely.
The one thing that makes Norther stand above Children of Bodom are the lyrics. Where as Children of Bodom's lyrics are very short, not seemingly to be well thought out, and just thrown onto an album as an after thought, Norther's lyrics are much more in depth, and more well written.
Is Norther better then Children of Bodom? In my opinion no, but they sound great anyway and I look forward to many more releases from this band.
Memorable Tracks: Blackhearted, Unleash Hell, Mirror of Madness

Very good album, amazing guitars in this album, and unique vocals. Sounds some what like Children of Bodom.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Badass
Enough with Children of Bodom already! Norther kicks alot more ass.

Published on Feb 26 2004 by Sean

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibleness
Seriously, how can you not like this stuff? It's halfway between Children of Bodom and Kalmah, with a little more black metal than COB but not as much as Kalmah, some extremely... Read more

Published on Nov 9 2003 by aiylyn

5.0 out of 5 stars Truely out of this world
This CD definetely has to be one of VERY few CDs in my opinion and collection that gets around 6,000 stars. I just can't find anything wrong with it! Read more

Published on Sep 29 2003 by Matt Stoessel

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