VOIMASTA JA KUNNIASTA

Voimasta Ja Kunniasta is the debut album from Moonsorrow. Moonsorrow is a folk/ Viking metal band from Finland. The album was released in 2001.

The music on Voimasta Ja Kunniasta is pretty basic mid paced heavy metal with lots of nordic ethnic folk influences. The vocals are excellent IMO. Ville Seponpoika Sorvali has a great aggressive rasp ( black metal style). The best thing is his Infernal screams which there is a good example of in the begining of Sankarihauta but they appear now and again to my great joy. The lyrics are in their native finnish language so I don´t know what they are about, but my guess would be the Viking culture. Besides the raspy vocals from Ville Seponpoika Sorvali there are also some grand choir sections which at times remind me of Rhapsody and at times give Voimasta Ja Kunniasta a power metal feel. I can´t help also thinking about Amorphis when I listen to the album. There is something in the folky parts that reminds me of Tales From the Thousand Lakes or Elegy from that particular band.

The musicianship is great on this album. It´s not unique and most of what´s played has been heard before a thousand times but sometimes it´s not what you play but the way you play it that matters. Note the mouth harp which appears in some songs. A really fun feature.

The production is good.

Moonsorrow has been a pleasant surprise for me even though I can´t claim to be a big fan of this genre. I´ll definitely be checking out the rest of their discography though. I think 3 stars are well deserved for this album. It´s not excellent by any means but certainly very good. Fans of folky/ viking metal will probably love this one.