Kaliban – “The Tempest of Thoughts”
This album was recorded in 1998. However, this is a good album and I did not notice that it was old until I read the booklet. That’s a good sign because it means that in 2005 it’s still sounding good. Actually, if you listen without worrying about what you want it to be (not what you wish it would sound like, but what it sounds like in reality) and just listen and wait to find out if something is good and then see where it takes you, you’ll find that The Tempest of Thoughts is a solid album with good songs from beginning to end. I know nothing about the history of this band. This album is licensed from Low Frequency Records and the band is from Finland (judging from the last names). The music: it has the pretty low tuned sound of melodic Scandinavian/Finnish metal/thrash/death, lots of guitar melodies and harmonies (which made me think of Sentenced’s Down), low-growled vocals (not screechy like At the Gates, etc., rather more guttural). In addition, the music throughout is peppered with keyboards (background mostly), other instruments like sitar, some female vocals, etc. Of course, this makes the music fall in that same broad field (of that time) covering In Flames, Sentenced, etc. Is this as good as those bands? Well, I had never heard of this band or this album until this review. So, this is a new album to me. What I can tell you is that this is a good album, sure, though not the most original. It’s relatively creative, it’s good, maybe very good in certain places. What may be of interest to you, if you like this specific type of music – and especially now that this sound has decreased in popularity – is to hear a surprisingly good band that you missed. Sorry, the cd booklet does not list a website.