Kalmah v. Seventh Swamphony is awesome

[Scorpion]

Alright, all this talk of a new CoB album has made me listen to three bands a lot during the last few days: CoB, Wintersun and Kalmah, which all play a pretty awesome brand of melodic death metal (or at least, used to ). Kalmah's They Will Return is one of my favourite melodic death metal albums of all time, I just love the guitar playing and the raspy vocal style of the Kokko brothers.

So yeah! There's bound to be some fans here, discuss anything Kalmah related here!

Now, I only know the aforementioned They Will Return. What would you fellow Kalmah fans recommend me? How do their other albums stack up to this masterpiece?

Also, for anything looking to get into this band, look no further than the link below, which is my favourite Kalmah song, which contains one of my favourite guitar solos of all time.

Kalmah - The Blind Leader

[gazinwales]

Well, well, somebody finally started a Kalmah thread, as I mentioned in the Bodom thread I was too lazy, so thank you for doing so.
Yes I was listening to 'They Will Return' in my car only yesterday, I haven't played it for a long time and sounded great.
How do their other albums stack up against your 'masterpiece'?
Well although I was a fan of the band, it wasn't until their 4th album, 'The Black Waltz', that I was hooked.
This album to my ears is their best, has all the hooks and guitar histrionics of TWR, but has better songs and more variety in the vocals.
Add to all that the Japanese version adds a killer cover of Carcass 'This Mortal Coil'.
A close second would be the last release, '12 Gauge' which is more of the same.

I'm listening to all 6 albums in preparation of the new one, 'Seventh Swaphony' release next month.

Oh yeah, I've seen them live a couple of time in Finland, playing festival sets and they were great.

[Ben_Jamin]

I haven't heard about these guys in like 5 years. Only heard one song from them, don't know which one, and it was great.

[Scorpion]

How do their other albums stack up against your 'masterpiece'?
Well although I was a fan of the band, it wasn't until their 4th album, 'The Black Waltz', that I was hooked.
This album to my ears is their best, has all the hooks and guitar histrionics of TWR, but has better songs and more variety in the vocals.
Add to all that the Japanese version adds a killer cover of Carcass 'This Mortal Coil'.

Alright, I'll definitely give The Black Waltz a spin or three. Sounds like I should enjoy it.

Also, Seventh Swamphony? They sure like their swamps, it seems.

EDIT: Listening to The Black Waltz right now. It's very good musically, though not as creative with the melodies as They Will Return, based on my first impression. Also, I liked the vocals on TWR a little more, I can't really pinpoint what changed, but the vocals there had something special, whereas this is just pretty run-of-the-mill death growls - again, based on my first impression of the first three songs, so this might be subject to change.

EDIT2: It does get better. Time Takes Us All is very good, as is To the Gallows (DAT SOLO ). The title track is completely amazing.

[gazinwales]

Glad your checking out and enjoying TBW, I had, '12 Gauge' on in the car today and it was skull crushing, some of the riffs are just massive.
The title track is the aural equivalent of artillery shells pounding the enemy and blowing them into oblivion.

[adace]

Listened to the new album earlier. It's awesome! Deadfall and Windlake Tale are probably my favorites from it. Not sure if it's better or worse than 12 Gauge as I'm not very familiar with that album, but it's definitely amazing. This band is a riff/melody machine

[Scorpion]

Wait, Seventh Swamphony is already out? I thought it wasn't until later this month.

EDIT: Now THAT is a terrifying music video.

[adace]

No, it's not out. I got it through other means if you catch my drift.

[Scorpion]

Gotcha, you bad boy.

[adace]

Gotcha, you bad boy.

[gazinwales]

Yes it did appear from out of nowhere when I got up this morning.
Listening now and it's very impressive so far.
It will need a few spins and I am looking forward to getting my CD from Japan and cranking it on my big sound system.
It's as good as anything they have done and some serious headbanging riffs, hooks and crunch going on here 

[Scorpion]

It's on Grooveshark! Listening right now, the title track is awesome, but I already knew that.

EDIT: Fuck yes Hollo! Are those some cleans?

EDIT2: Well, I'm through once and I can say with certainty that this will be an album that I'll come back to. The album gets even better towards the end, imho, with the title track and Deadfall actually being some of the weaker stuff (if you can call it that). Clear highpoint is Hollo, though Black Marten's Trace, Wolves on the Throne and The Trapper are serious contenders as well.