What we have here is a three songs sampler that serves togive a taster of Kalmah’s fifth album, For The Revolution, which is scheduled to released in July.  The songs are a great surprise, with not only a reference to the Finns domestic metal scene, but also to the Swedish death metal sound, Kalmah have produced songs that whet your appetite for the release of the full album. 

Whilst vocalist Pekka Kokko happily growls his way through the tracks, it is the music where the band shine most. Each song benefits from strong guitars pumping out riffs that help to define them, they readily throw in solos, have angry yelled choruses and even have a small hint of some battle metal.   

The band is new to me so I am unable to reference their sound with regard to any of their older outings but from this short sampler what the band do have achieved here is a sound that is like a collaboration of Amon Amarth and Children Of Bodom, and it works brilliantly.  Nothing is overdone; the solos don't overstay their welcome, the singing is good solid growls, and the backing vocals are frequent enough to enhance songs but not too much to overshadow the great head banging inducing guitar work. On the strength of these few songs the full length album should be phenomenal when it is released. 

Darren Brushneen