Skál – ‘Brew of the Gods’ (EP 2021)
Rating: 7/10
Release: 7 Januari 2022
Label: Independent
Cheerful and powerful. This is the EP that Skál presents us from Finland. A sound that can remind us of the style of other bands from that country, with happy overtones and all the energy from metal.
In this short work, Skál gives us an appetizer of what we can expect from this band in the future. Very different melodies when they go to the side of the acoustic style with typical folk instruments, good guitar riffs, and a powerful voice when they focus on metal. We can appreciate this by comparing ‘Karjala’ and ‘Malja’, two very different styles coming from the same band and which I hope will be preserved in future works since the variety of sounds can be very well received by the audience.
The instrumentation is very good and stands out enough. Maybe when they focus on metal we can miss the strong melodies and instrumentation of other songs, but this may be due to the very style of the band.
What if I see as a not-so-positive point is that the power of the voice I do not see it equally present throughout the EP, although I think it is something more from mixing and mastering that can be improved once we have a full length. In regards to the voice, the singing style is very appropriate for the genre and properly matches the music.
Finally, we start with simple cover art that we don’t know yet if it will be maintained for the final work, but when we see it we can appreciate what we are going to hear: a simple work, but one that has a lot to say for the future. Best wishes to the band. We will be listening.
My favorite: ‘Karjala’.
Tracklist
- Sandels
- Kozel
- Karjala
- Malja