Great performances on instruments and vocals alone do not great music make. This is a perfectly fitting phrase about Finnish band Norther's debut album 'Dreams of Endless War'. Hell, it came out in 2002! Meaning that the band's great influences (which I'm simply guessing, not claiming
that they are such, but they are pivotal bands in their genres), Children Of Bodom and Stratovarius, had been putting out material for many years already. COB since 1997 and Stratovarius since 1989.

Norther made no attempts to hide their role models. Surely, there is no shame in wearing your influences on your sleeves. When thinking about these two paragons, and some more who are named later on, the songwriting here is pretty good when comparing it to the "elders'" work. Certainly, there are some catchy songs on the album, but the originality is basically absent. Nothing here is better than the best material from the influencing bands. That's why this feels like a second-grade album. Can one forget to what one's comparing this to? I believe that's not an option. How many second-grade album would be good or great if there was a few pinches of uniqueness in them..?!?! Exactly. I cannot say call this bad. It would not be fair at all.

The opener 'Darkest Time' showcases neoclassical metal paired with extreme black metal-ish croak vocals. In a way it sounds closer to Swedish band Skyfire's debut album 'Timeless Departure' (which was released a mere 10 months earlier in March 2001) than COB. It's just too easy to see Norther as COBycats, because COB were the ones who got so far with their chosen music-craft. There certainly was a huge wave of that kind of bands coming out in the brink of 21st century. The next two tracks are more in vein of Eternal Tears Of Sorrow, Kalmah or Catamenia, thanks to melancholic, wintry vibes. It was just a big boiling pot of neoclassical/power metal paired with death metal, and spiced with some black metal, in Finland at the time. 'Endless War' is the first one with true COB influence, and the rest of the songs are more like stuff from the other bands mentioned here. Well, eh, the cover song 'The Final Countdown' by Europe...

So, more or less fast machine gun riffing, tremolo stuff, flashy lead guitar licks... It's more or less hyperactive behaviour on the guitar front. But there's also some cool guitar shrieks and chops to enliven it even further! It is technical for sure, but highly skilled guitarists shredding like heck was becoming a commodity in early 2000s anyway. Keyboards have a strong presence, too: anything from mats to tinkling stuff and close to baroque vibe. And of course at times in close conjunction with guitars. And let'snot forget them keyboard solos... The drumming is solid, offering mid-paced double kick drumming, blast beats and stuff timed together with riffing. Oh yeah, the bass guitar is there too, which is not wonder when looking at engineers and mixers. It would be weird if there were no moments of "Finnish" here; surely they happen, but they don't go very close to borrowing folk music melodies or chord progressions, actually far lesser extension as ETOS or Kalmah did and do (but yeah, 'Victorious One' surely has them). There are a few longer songs (+5½ minutes), but the band soldiered through them well. Some songwriting techniques work wonders, e.g. cool tempo/vibe changes on 'Last Breath' and 'Dream' (probably the catchiest pieces on here), and relentless bashing on 'Released', that is paused with good melody weaving. The album's production is punchy and rather clear, but with some rip left therein.

Petri Lindroos' (also guitars) vocals are rabid. He sounds like his throat is getting lacerated, all the time, brutally. His voice is raspy throat growl, somewhat reminiscent of Wintersun's Jari Mäenpää (Jari started his newer band while he still played in Ensiferum, and that's where Mr. Lindroos went before quitting Norther in 2008). The lyrics basically lead with death, whether it's about a person or memories. They aren't bad, and at least the band had balls to print 'em, unlike that one band. Hmmmm...

In the end, there is so much happening here, but not that much of things to cling to. Well, not at first; keep on spinning the album, and there might be quite a lot of things jumping up. Plus it isn't very characteristic either, and cretainly clichéd. The band performed well, but were somewhat faceless here. It is not a bad album in its genre, and includes a couple of true gems.

Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/05/2020 20:22