The Album Club: "SLK" by Stam1na
 

https://www.metal-archives.com/image...00530.jpg?4546

Into 2018 we go, and MicShazam's album is the one to take us there. Debate, rate, comment, review and vote on this album here.

This is one of my top 10 albums of all times, across all genres, and I place it especially highly withing the metal genre. Somehow I don't expect to convince anyone that I'm not crazy.

Stam1na- SLK (2014)


Best Tracks: Rautasorkka, Heikko Ehka, Kolmen Minuuten Hiljaisuus ( I hope I’m spelling these right)


Weakest Tracks: Dynamo, Usko Pois



First of all, you have to tell me what language this is in. Fortunately, I’m not who studies the lyrics much when I’m doing a review.

You surprise me here, Mic. You didn’t strike me as much of a metal person. I’m not really a metal person either, but like you it seems, a few metal albums may sneak in for me once in a while. And I can see why you went with this one. It kind of has a eighties vibe, kind of like Iron Maiden for want of a comparison.

I like this album. It drives like a turbo engine. I did my usual best and weakest tracks but the truth is, this album is remarkably consistent. Usko Pois is really not that much of a step down from Rautasorkka for example. Kolmen is a nice instrumental and maybe my favorite track on the album. The title track starts off a bit choppy but I love the dramatic ending. I think you chose well here, Mic.

It might have been better in English, but no matter. I’m checking Love It and giving you an eight. It’s a big jump from the last review I gave you.










8/10 (the Word has spoken :D)


PS- I just discovered that they won an award in Finland, so I can assume these guys are Finnish?

Yes, Stam1na is a Finnish band and they sing in Finnish, except for 1 English language song one the album Nocebo. Personally, I tend to prefer artists singing in their native tongue. I'm so used to all sorts of foreign languages by now that I simply enjoy the color and personality it brings to music when everyone doesn't sing in English.

I can tell you that my leaning towards singer-songwriter and folk music is a pretty recent development. Go back 10 years and I was a total metalhead. I still enjoy quite a few metal bands, but I tend to lean towards the more creative, less genre bound metal bands these days.

I think what I've discovered, is that I'm not as much a fan of any specific genre as I'm into music that makes me feel alive or speaks to me on some emotional plane that is hard to pin down. Gone are the days where I first and foremost spent my energy trying to find good metal.

This is a pretty good one. Also, this club is falling apart.

Nah, we just have a lot of late bloomers with this one. Come on, guys, speak up. :)

There’s moments where it sounds like pretty cool black metal or math rock but mostly it’s a bunch of fruitloop no edge melodic emo in a bad way metal.

Listen to it and you’ll see why

It's not the first time you've reacted to one of my album club picks in a way that almost made me spit my coffee out over my laptop.

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!