Review by Ben for Barren Earth - Our Twilight (2009)

Many of the same ingredients that made early Amorphis so great, but the magic isn't quite there

I’ve never been particularly enthusiastic about so-called supergroups. Often it seems that a bunch of well-known musicians from well-established bands get together over a weekend to produce something merely adequate to make a quick buck using their names alone. On the surface, Barren Earth very easily slot into the supergroup category, with members from Amorphis, Moonsorrow, Swallow the Sun and Kreator, all joining forces to form what is at least initially a side project for just about all of them. But looking into the admittedly short history of the band, one gets the feeling that Barren Earth is more than just a cash-seeking name-drop, particularly for band originator and bassist Olli-Pekka Laine. As far back as 2006, some six years after he departed Amorphis to spend his time playing stoner rock with Mannhai, Olli-Pekka had been composing tracks independently that simply didn’t fit into the style of the two bands he was associated with at the time (Mannhai and death metal band Chaosbreed). In order to do something with this newfound inspiration, he decided the best thing to do was form a new band. Given his place within the burgeoning Finnish metal scene, he didn’t have to look very far to find willing participants, so began the task of handpicking the right musicians to fit his vision.

The first musicians he turned to were Marko Tarvonen (drummer for Moonsorrow) and Kasper Mårtenson (who performed keyboards on Amorphis’ brilliant Tales From the Thousand Lakes album alongside Olli-Pekka). He had no doubt that the three of them had the chemistry to work together, as they’d temporarily played around in a progressive rock band called Camel Gang (influenced by Camel and The James Gang evidently) around 2005. Both Marko and Olli-Pekka had worked previously with guitarist Janne Perttilä (Marko in Lakupaavi and Olli-Pekka in Rytmihäiriö, both of which performed grindcore), so he was the next man brought into the fold, and Barren Earth was beginning to take form. For anyone interested in where that name originated from, it turns out it was Kasper’s suggestion that got the nod after several other submissions hadn’t reached a positive verdict. He originally liked the idea of Scorched Earth, which is a song by a progressive rock band he liked called Van der Graff Generator, but it turned out there were numerous other bands with the same name. He then came across a line in another of their songs (A Place to Survive) which says “the barren earth, never more will it flower” and the rest is history. A lead guitarist, Sami Yli-Sirniö from Kreator, was invited to join late in 2007, and the resulting quintet rehearsed for a few months before entering the studio to record a vocal-less demo in the summer of 2008.

It’s around this time that the final piece of the puzzle fell into place, with Swallow the Sun vocalist Mikko Kotamäki agreeing to join Barren Earth. He added his own brand of vocals to the demo, putting the band in a position to search for an interested label. After distributing the tracks to several record companies, it was Peaceville that took the bait, with Barren Earth surprisingly being the first Finnish band signed to the legendary label. With that sorted the guys went back to the studio in the summer of 2009 to record a bunch of tracks for an intended debut full length release. If you’re reading this, you’ll already know that things didn’t pan out exactly the way they expected. After recording ten new tracks, Peaceville decided the time was not right to release the debut album as it would have directly clashed with the release of the new Swallow the Sun record. A compromise was made, with the outcome being that Barren Earth would release a four track EP at the backend of 2009 before a full length a few months into 2010. The subsequent EP is entitled Our Twilight, with the title track being the only track that would eventually reappear on the full length and would be released on the 9th of November. There would also be one exclusive new track from the recent recording session and two of the tracks off the demo would appear in re-mixed form.

It’s not quite accurate to say that Amorphis are the biggest influence on the sound of Barren Earth, but rather that the two former Amorphis members’ (Olli-Pekka and Kasper) inclusion in the band has resulted in a somewhat similar sound. The mildly progressive, occasionally seventies inspired, and not particularly harsh metal really does bring to mind the Tales From the Thousand Lakes / Black Winter Day period of Amorphis’ discography, which unsurprisingly is the era where Barren Earth’s bassist and keyboardist were both involved in that band. Given my adoration for those releases, it seemed a given that I would find much to like on this little EP. I have to say it hasn’t been as clear-cut as I thought it would be, with initial listens not meeting the high expectations I had, particularly after reading some of the very positive reviews around here. With each listen I am finding more enjoyment, with some of the melodies and choruses digging their way under my skin, but there are certainly some elements that are just not quite clicking for me. Mikko’s deep growl works well within the gloomy melancholy of Swallow the Sun but seems a little out of place within the lighter, more melodic tones of Barren Earth. I also struggle with some of the keyboard sounds Kasper plays around with, despite my acceptance of very similar textures in the previously mentioned Amorphis works.

For the most part though, Barren Earth play a tight and very listener friendly form of death metal that’s reasonably difficult not to like. Well, it is if you don’t expect your metal to be hugely technical or brutal, and don’t find your manhood threatened by catchy clean choruses and keyboard solos. Speaking of clean vocals, the liner notes suggest that each member of the band lent their voice to the four tracks at some point, so I have no idea who’s singing at which stage. None are terrible, but I can’t say any are outstanding either. The first two tracks are the more expansive of the bunch and showcase some of the more progressive influences the guys have brought to the table. One thing that does concern me is that I like the last two tracks the most, both of which are lifted straight from the demo (albeit remixed by Dan Swanö), suggesting I may be in for a more challenging experience with the full-length album. They’re just a little bit darker with less emphasis on melody and catchiness, which is probably more up my alley these days. Flames of Serenity even has a bit of doominess to it while closer Floodred’s initial groove eventually makes way for an Opeth imitating midsection, before further Amorphisisms bring the disc to a fitting conclusion. All thing considered, Our Twilight is a promising little EP that suggests this supergroup may have something to offer apart from their names.