Customer Reviews

Tulimyrsky EP

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I'm not a finnish speaker and I'm waiting for the official english translation of the lyrics, so I'll keep this review short. This EP features a 29:45 long track, Tulimyrsky, two covers (including For Whom The Bell Tolls from Metallica's Ride The Lightning), and two re-recordings of songs from their early demos. That's 68 minutes of music... quite an earful for an EP.

People generously apply the word "epic" for songs that are greater than 5 minutes in length, and by that measure, Tulimyrsky must be one of the greatest. But this track deserves that title many times over for the music: the soundscapes and spoken finnish paint pictures of ancient battles. The story is set in many parts, and the spoken interludes are haunting even to someone like me who does not understand one word of Finnish. The guitaring and keyboards are exceptional, as is the drumming, and often, it sounds like there are many other instruments going in the background too. The melodies leave you wishing they were longer (e.g., 10:20 or 18:46). Not at one point does the song sound patchy or hastily strung together. Undoubtedly one of the best tracks I've heard all year. I've heard Tulimyrsky over 30 times, and I think it could be Moonsorrow's greatest song, which is saying a lot.

The next track is a folk-metal style rework of For Whom the Bell Tolls. I really liked how Moonsorrow didn't try to copy the original... these guys have really breathed new life and melodies into (e.g., the outro) that song. The intro itself lasts 3 minutes, for god's sake!

I will not comment upon the other three tracks (as I'm a relatively new Moonsorrow fan) except to say that these tracks are exactly what you'd expect of Moonsorrow: excellent, uncompromising, epic music.

So, do not hesitate... Moonsorrow is not black metal or melodic death metal or folk metal, but a surprisingly effective blend of all three, and this EP is as good a place to get into them as any. Pick it up now!

As the title song mentions, this album is an absolute firestorm. I bought this at the same time as Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maasa, threw them on my MP3, and hit shuffle. Along I went, happily painting rocks and trees, listening to epic heathen metal (not viking, folks, get it right). After a few delightful songs came on, Tulimyrsky finally cued. I had to stop what I was doing momentarily and just soak in the track. What song is this?

For those of you who (like me) don't speak Suomi, the track follows the tale of a man witnessing his village being ravaged by a vengeful enemy the narrator's people had attacked a year before, sold out by one of their own who has taken to gold over dignity. The song itself portrays the nature of karma and the retribution that comes from ill deeds, which eventually builds to a senseless carnage that never seems to end. A vicious cycle. We attack them, they attack us, rinse and repeat. I could easily ramble on about the greater meaning of such actions, and their ever-increasing relevance in modern times despite the antiquity for which they were written, but I'll let you take that journey on your own. Greed. Bloodlust, and the pursuit of a vengeance that can never be fully satisfied.

This is quite a fitting storyline to accompany Moonsorrow's well-documented musical ambitions. They are experts at building tension over a long period of time. They rarely meander, even when they are squeezing every last drop of life from every riff.

Lastly, this song reminds me of Rush's 2112. Not that the content has a whole lot to do with it...it simply reminds me of that album in how it is put together (minus the Jim Henson's Dark Crystal gelfling-ish narrator). Perhaps it is the observing narrator itself, I don't know. The song is broken into 9 passages, each bringing a higher level of angst and tension that only one who is hiding in the hills as his people are murdered and raped by their sworn enemy can possibly be experiencing.

The rest of the album is basically a bunch of goodies for the fans. Possibly for the band too, as they have nothing to do with the title track, but I'm not complaining. As the other reviews mentioned, For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the best covers ever made, right along with Hendrix' All Along the Watchtower, System of a Down's Snowblind, and Johnny Cash's Hurt. Moonsorrow absolutely smashes it, making it sound little like the original except for the basic structure. There are some other goodies too, another cover and some re-recordings. Top notch, people.

This EP easily could've been Moonsorrow's next album because it's over an hour long with 5 songs 1 new, 2 covers and 2 re-recordings of demos but instead they decided just to make it an EP says a lot about them as musicians I think. The new song is almost half an hour long and it's EPIC without a dull moment which is something these guys are good at and not every can do that. There are a lot of different parts through the song where it has its heavy moments, then folky moments, spoken interludes where you can hear sounds of nature and battle scenes in the background and there're parts where they all come together but no where is there a dull moment in this amazing song. There are only lyrics for this song in the cover but they don't include the english translations and it says to go the their website, which I did but they didn't have the translation up yet, but they might now.

One of the cover versions is For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica, which is one of their songs that I actually really like, but after hearing this version I can never go make to listening to the original because this one is far better. They easily made this song their own by adding that touch of theirs by making it epic and throwing in some folk which just makes this out into an amazing song. Their next cover is Back to North by Merciless, which I have not heard but I'm sure that this version is far superior to the original in the ways that For Whom the Bell Tolls is. They 2 covers are also the first songs that these guys have sung in English.

The 2 re-recordings from earlier demos are more black metal oriented with very little folkish elements thrown in and they are all over the place with the fast guitar fiffs. Personally I don't really care for these songs because they don't have that great Moonsorrow sound like the other songs but the're okay.

This is a very good CD and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Moonsorrow, folk metal or epic sounding music because you won't be sorry, I know I'm not.

Tulimyrsky, 30 minutes EP, plus some extra material. If you like Folk Black Vikingness you could like this one. Organizes songs more like classical music. The first song is 30 minutes what else would you do with a thirty minute song. Could always download it for a buck I guess