By Monk
Verikalpa may identify themselves as “Finnish alcoholic trolls” but they are far from drunken fools as this polished collection of 12 ballads about about drinking, partying, fighting – well, I have to assume that’s what they’re about, as they’re all in their native Suomi language – exemplifies and elaborates in succinctly eloquent style.
It’s actually quite hard to write much about this album, as it basically says everything on the tin… be that Harp, Carlsberg Special, White Lightning or whatever the nearest equivalent is in the land of the virtually never rising sun. This is party metal, with the emphasis on both the PARTY and the METAL at its finest. A madcap, thrashing journey through all the multiple realms of drunken enjoyment, fuelled by accordions, hurdy-gurdys, mandolins and various other assorted traditional instruments – as well as, undoubtedly, copious amounts of dubious liquors brewed illicitly in a forest somewhere close to the Arctic Circle – as they are guitars turned up to maximum.
Combining elements of folk and death metal to superb sonic effect, Verikalpa follow very firmly in the boot steps of countrymen such as Turisas, and prove once again that when it comes to paying homage to one of our favourite past-times through the medium of another, there are very few who do it better than the Finns. All hail! Raise those horns of mead high and drink deep of the utter enjoyment this thoroughly enjoyable album offers.
- ‘Tuomio‘ is out now.
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