Külmking - Kõik kaob (2020)

Country: Estonia
Style: Groove Metal
Rating: 6/10
Release Date: 6 Mar 2020
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal Archives | YouTube

I'm seeing a lot of different labels for Külmking, who are from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Their Bandcamp page tags them as death metal, folk metal and pagan metal; their Facebook page shrinks down to just the latter; while Metal Archives plumps for death/groove metal. On the basis of this album on its own, I'd lean towards groove metal as a descriptor of the sound myself, though with a strong death influence.

Presumably the pagan and folk angles are tied to the lyrics; the band's name is a "malicious spirit in Estonian folklore". It seems that Google Translate isn't too great with Estonian, as is evident just from attempting to figure out who does what in the band. It makes sense that Madis Velström takes care of "a hellish vocal" but Rain Parkman is apparently the man who handles the "grab drum heating", whatever that is. Searching for individual words, I see that Sven Põder is on "welding guitar" while Raiko Parts handles the "chisel guitar", but I could only get "eminent bass" for Mihkel Orek. Well, eminent is good, I guess.

Given descriptions like those, I'm surprised that this isn't more vicious in nature, but it's very controlled material. The musicians mostly concentrate on riffs and a succession of complex time changes to separate them, which is enough to make this a very djenty experience if not for the death influence and the reasonable pace. It does feel like the band could have taken this a heck of a lot further in many different extreme directions but they chose to avoid them all in favour of keeping the songs as tight as possible.

The band start off on Timuka tütar as they mean to keep going. Only the odd but intriguing intro really separates it from the other nine songs on offer. It's djenty for a while, that jagged guitar tone that makes it sound like a bass, but there's a thrashy guitar later on when the song gets moving. Madis Velström grunts and growls his way through, as if he's not entirely sure if he prefers death growls or hardcore shouts. He moves from one to the other a lot here. The approach works well as a companion to the guitar sound.

The lack of variety is surely the album's biggest problem, just as the tight musicianship is surely its biggest asset. Some songs feature faster sections that play closer to older school metal, but they always return to a staccato riff at some point. Jaaniöö is a great example of all of that, but it's also elevated by what I initially presumed was a backing vocal that's less polished but more characterful than Velström's lead because it's just singing, not playing the role of a singer. Other faster songs, like Libahunt, just play that staccato djent style faster.

I wished I knew who the backing vocalist is. He shows up again on Libahunt and at further points throughout the album and sings in a folkier style. I would never call this folk metal because it clearly wants to be modern and I don't hear any ethnic instrumentation at all, except for maybe a quiet moment late in Surm that is probably a guitar but sounds more like a lute. However, that backing vocal adds an extra element that, over a few listens, became the one and only identity I could take away from the album. When it's in play, the band sound like nobody else, only Külmking. When it isn't, they're just one more djenty metal band, however musically proficient they happen to be. And it turns out that the backing vocalist is the same Madis Velström who sings the lead. I appreciate his versatility.

I'm not a big fan of djent, so the fact that I like this is telling. I can't say I like it a lot but that may just be my personal tastes showing. It's as capable, as well written and performed, as anything with that sort of sound. I just happen to prefer the Külmking that Külmking seem to be trying not to be, the folkier band of songs like Kaarnakiwi with a different vocal style.

Val Tvoar - Today is Tomorrow's Yesterday (2020)

Country: Estonia
Style: Stoner Rock
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 1 Jan 2020
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Metal Archives

Stoner rock comes in a lot of flavours, but this is the liveliest, sharpest and bounciest stoner rock I think I've ever heard, not to forget perhaps the most varied. It's the product of one man, because Val Tvoar is not Estonian slang for something illegal and intoxicating; it's his name and he does most everything here, writing the songs, performing every instrument and singing too. He didn't paint the cover and he didn't mix the album, but he may well have put the kettle on during the recording sessions.

His sense of humour is apparent as the album begins, with a voice counting down some sort of space launch and tripping over the numbers. Dark Sun is a up tempo rocker built from stoner riffs but without much fuzz on the guitar. Nothing here is laid back and it wraps up pretty quick, at just over three minutes, but that's fine. The Preacher continues in much the same vein, but with a more prominent bass. That's one benefit to being a one man band: you want to hear everything you play!

If those tracks sounded vaguely like Lenny Kravitz playing stoner rock, the next song, Hold on to Silence is far grungier. There's some Soundgarden in here, I think, though it bizarrely ends with a Raining Blood homage. That's unexpected but cool. Unchained brings in some more fuzz and gets jauntier. Eternity Ends Here adds a prog vibe. There are lots of sounds incorporated into this stoner rock framework without ever seeming out of place.

Perhaps inevitably, given its title, things get more traditional with Weird Painting with Skulls and the River Runs Thru, so impeccably stoner that the title doesn't even make sense unless you're under some sort of chemical influence. It plays a lot more psychedelic than anything else here, much more like stoner rock usually sounds like. Dancing with the Flames does too, but in a heavier way. I'd call this album stoner rock but this song is stoner metal for much of its running time, the guitars all crunched up and in our face.

The title track is another traditional stoner rock song with the fuzz turned up. The lyrics are pretty simple, being mostly the title and another single line repeated quite a lot. It's not the shortest song on the album, Dancing with the Flames clocking in at only two and a half minutes, but at merely a minute longer, it's surely the least substantial song on offer, making it a surprising choice for the title track.

Then again, this couldn't be mistaken for any other genre. Nobody is going to pick it up believing that it's jazz or death metal or trip hop or world music. Even if potential customers haven't even heard of stoner rock, they would still know that that's what this is. There isn't a lot of honesty in advertising nowadays but this is exactly that.

This isn't the sort of stoner rock I'm coming to relish. It features almost no psychedelic edge. There are no long drawn out instrumental jams. There's nothing that feels like a journey or a soundscape. But I liked it anyway. What Val Tvoar delivers on this album are a set of short and lively songs that are interesting and varied, with decent riffs and consistently strong instrumentation. Knowing that every instrument, including the vocals, is Tvoar himself makes it more impressive still. It's kind of what pop punk is to punk, but to stoner rock.