Rating: 8.5/10
Release: 18 August 2023
Label:Reaper Entertainment

The Finnish band Valkeat released their second full-length album “Fireborn”. This new full-length, a very complex and well layered one, is a sort of guide that will lead listeners to a new era of Finnish modern folk and symphonic metal, succeeding quite well in the intent.

“Fireborn” is named after the Sampo, a machine that creates eternal wealth for anyone who owns it and is present in the Kalevala. The full-length was recorded at the prestigious Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki.

It has 14 tracks, all very well balanced with each other, including an instrumental song. The album opens with “My Crown”, a very dark and aggressive single, in which, through the lyrics, we enter the dark depths of the human psyche. In the band’s words: “With ‘My Crown’ we wanted to create something dark and aggressive to kick off ‘Fireborn’ as the first track. In the text we ventured into the darkest parts of the psyche and in the music, we blew up an orchestra of strings and brass. We think it was a perfect opening for an album as complex and layered as Fireborn”. Other noteworthy tracks are “Moraš”, which represents a tribute with an almost archaic and ritualistic musicality, to the wonderful culture of the Sami people; “Swan Song (Lemminkäinen)” representing the melancholic and folk side, the latter very much present in many parts of the full-lenght, of the Finnish band; “Fireborn”, in which there are acoustic parts and electric parts and the text is rendered as an unsung tale. A mention goes to “Kuolematon”, instrumental piece that anticipates the final song, “Land of Falling Leaves-Song up The Skies” that is like the dreamiest song of the full-length.

This full-length, so complex and well-structured both musically and from the point of view of the instrumental part (where the kantele is very present) represents a love letter to Finland and its wonders. A letter that expresses itself through the well-structured melodies, the acoustic parts that fit well with the more electric parts and the various songs that are very flowing and do not weigh the duration of an hour of “Fireborn”, without ever making it cloying or boring. Valkeat will really bring a new life to Finnish melodic-folk, modernizing it as they are doing with “Fireborn”.

Tracklist

1 My Crown
2 Tribe
3 Swan Song (Lemminkäinen)
4 Ukko
5 Moraš
6 Fireborn
7 Karjalan Kunnailla
8 Summer Nights
9 Iku
10 Tule Kokko
11 Thunderbird
12 Vana
13 Kuolematon
14 Land of Falling Leaves – Song up the Skies