One of my absolute favorite metal albums of all time. I'm a very big fan of this band in general, and this is one of the band's best albums for sure, possibly tied with Elokuutio and Viimeinen Atlantis.
SLK has pretty much everything I want from a metal album: Atmosphere, tight songwriting, catchy riffs, interesting solos and impassioned delivery.
There's good variety and expressiveness in the vocals and all instruments are played with conviction and skill. What really makes this album such a classic for me is the fantastic , fat free songwriting. The songs just flow so well, no matter how many different parts are transitioned between and I'm never allowed to be bored for even a second.
I really enjoy bands that have a very unique sound and this is by no means your usual metal band, but rather an idiosyncratic mix of several different elements, some of which are very specifically tied to what's going on in Finnish rock and metal. The album just feels very Scandinavian - even disregarding the Finnish vocals (then there's the question of whether Finland is part of Scandinavia, but you'll get different answers depending who you ask and it's hardly important to my point).
Basically, I think this album is great. One might even say unassailable.
10/10, love it!
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