Rating: 8.8

Country: Finland

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Debemur Morti

Track list:
1.   Shores of Fire   06:36   
2.   White Northern Soils   05:51   
3.   Funeral Pyres   06:28   
4.   The Streams of the End   03:03   

Total playing time   21:58

Band Website: October Falls

October Falls - The Streams of the End

V. Metsola - bass
Mikko Lehto - everything else

For those unfortunate enough to have seen An Inconvenient Truth, you know those scenes where Al Gore pensively watches a stream or squirrel or something while appearing gravely concerned? Thanks to that movie I share a stupid running gag with a friend where, upon seeing a picturesque piece of nature like a lake or river, we'll stare at it solemnly until one of us utters a deadpan "I am gravely concerned." As I said, intensely stupid. I begin with this anecdotal preamble because, while listening to The Streams of the End, that's the first thing that sprang to mind, which is a fact that saves you the effort of having to shamble through the many gay nature metaphors this Finnish folk metal band's evocative naturalism invites me to make.

This is the only October Falls release thus far to venture into black metal, with previous releases inhabiting the realm of gloomy, Tenhi-esque neofolk. And while The Streams of the End does adopt a more metallic edge, they haven't compromised their folk flair in the process, resulting in a sound that approaches the taste of those who enjoy old Ulver, Drudkh, Empyrium, etc. Throughout the core of this EP, the rhythm guitar serves as a fairly benign structural canvas, over which whirring leads and delicately flamenco-accented acoustic strings harmonize and duel for dominance to arbitrate the songs' conflict and resolution. Mikko Lehto's obligatorily raspy vocalizations, while hardly insufficient, are forgettable and shoved out of the spotlight by the elegantly violent poetry produced by the guitars; so while The Streams of the End is destined to be seen as October Falls' "metal release," rest assured it's still one of the softer, more pristine metals of the periodic table.

If you love Scandinavian folk but hate anything associated with metal, I don't know what you're doing on a site featuring band names like Destroyer 666, but not all is lost; the title song sees October Falls dropping the distortion and showing their true colors with a purely acoustic song of grinding cellos and bantering duck noises. It's of about equal quality of the EP's metal songs, proof of this band's versatility if there is any.

The production has a denseness about it that converges the instruments into a frosty blur, but the more you listen to it, the more the lugubrious tones untangle, rendering its structural nuances free for your cognition to explore. For example, I didn't even notice that there was an accordion humppa rhythm breezing about behind the wailing leads in the song "Funeral Pyres" until the second time I spun it. If this EP consisted of just that song, October Falls would still deserve praise for simply using an instrument like that to facilitate good music rather than to just draw attention to the fact they're using it.

October Falls' hokey seasonal name couldn't be any more appropriate for the pristine energy their music channels. The Streams of the End, even for folk metal, is perhaps too easily digestible in its easy-listening song development, and ultimately proves to be a bit underwhelming (being a modest 20-ish minute EP), but its steadfast congruity and synesthesia-inducing tonal bombast mark it as a satisfying stylistic fusion. I'll keep my eye on this act and I advise you to do the same.

May 21st, 2008