The sound of Finnish swamps from Virginia.
FORETOKEN is a musician duo from Virginia, USA. Two and a half years after the release of their debut album “Ruins”, “Triumphs” is the Americans’ second studio work. At the same time, FORETOKEN musically surprises everyone who didn’t know the band before, including me.
Why surprise the boys? Because, probably not without prejudice, I somehow don’t assume that the songs of an American duo will sound like they come from the Finnish swamps. Because the music of FORETOKEN always reminds me of the Finnish band KALMAH and their first albums “Swamplord” or “They Will Return”. Because the band, like FORTOKEN, have added minor symphonic elements to the melodic black and death metal mix and have thus created a sound that is so far independent. So far because FORETOKEN now sounds at least very similar. All eight original compositions are on a constantly high level, without individual songs really standing out. And as good as ‘Revenant Of Valor’, ‘Demon Queller’, ‘His Riastrad’ or ‘Devil O’ The Sea’ are, the best track on “Triumphs” is the cover version of NAGLFAR’s terrific ‘I Am Vengeance’, which is probably the closest thing to the original, because the FORETOKEN version doesn’t differ much from the NAGLFAR version. But simply a great choice for a cover.
With “Triumphs” FORETOKEN delivers an album that fans of the early KALMAH works absolutely can’t go wrong with. It would be nice if the original compositions contained at least one or two really outstanding pieces, but well, what isn’t there yet might be in the future. Even without these highlights, “Triumphs” is fun and will certainly find its way into my ears more often.
- Note:
- 8.00
- Editor:
- Mario Dahl