Keskustelua raskaammasta musiikista ›

"
Essence of Fear is the second full length album from the Finnish death metal band, NOWEN.
 
The opening track Intro II is pretty much what you would expect to hear from a thrashy death metal band. The overall speed of the music and the guitar riffs bear a strong resemblance to Arch Enemy and this influence is present throughout the album. The next track The Egotist continues where previous one left off and thanks to its fast, catchy guitar riffs, drums and growling vocals this is definitely one for those who enjoy the mosh-pit.
 
Other tracks sound like the bands homage to old school death metal bands such as Morbid Angel. For example the intro to Crown of Fallacy features the signature death metal drum sound. The next track, Path of Destruction however is leaning towards a thrashier/melodic death metal sound with its standout guitar solos. Sacrifice for Nothing is the albums epic ballad with its melodic guitar riffs mixed in with the Arch Enemy -style growls.
 
The guitar in the intro to Deadly Force reminds me of Pro Patria Finlandia era Impaled Nazarene. That is of course until the vocals kick in marking a return to the Arch Enemy style melodic death metal. The Honor in turn features some progressive elements which are one of the albums weaknesses as the guitar squeals wreck an otherwise solid piece.
 
Overall this release shows a lot of promise but I think NOWEN still have some way to go before they establish their place in the metal scene.
 
3.5/5
 
Iza Raittila "
 
Lähde:
http://valkyrianmusic.com/2012/02/09/nowen-essence-of-fear/

Uusi Sue heitti 8/10. Jahka jaksan, rustailen kyseisen arvion tänne.
Seuraavassa Miasmassa luvassa haastista. Ilmestymispäivä, tarkka, Unknown.
 
Ja levyt toimittaa perille X:
http://www.levykauppax.fi/search/?f=all&q=Nowen&w=music
 
Kympin pintaan lähtevät

"Vähintään neljän levyn kohdalla viidestä promomateriaalin, saatekirjeiden ja mainosten ylisanat paljastuvat banaalisti keskinkertaisten tuotosten haperoiksi kääreiksi vailla katetta. Poikkeukset ovat siksi aina toivottuja ja tervetulleita.
Lahtelaisbändin death metallin ja thrashin aineksia sekoitteleva rymistely alkaa kierros toisensa jälkeen kuulostamaan koko ajan sujuvammalta ja kiinteämmältä. Levyn materiaali kantaa loppuun asti ja siinä on tuntevinaan henkeä. Olikin mielenkiintoista huomata omien havaintojen jälkeen saatteessa käytetyn termiä sielukas. Ja kerrankin aiheesta.
Essence of Fearin soidessa kolea veto käy läpi talon tavallista voimakkaampana. Galsan fiiliksen saavuttamiseksi ei ole edes tarvittu mitään yliampuvia kikkailuja. Rokkoisimmatkin maisemat saadaan aikaan harkitun tasokkaisiin sävellyksiin varsin tavanomaisella otteella, josta Sacrifice for Nothing käy mainiosta onpinnäytteestä. Deadly Force puolestaan yllättää olemalla muuta materiaalia reilusti reippaampi, ja hoilauskertosäkeineen se kummasti piristää albumin puoliväliä.
Klassikkokappaleita raskaan musiikin historian lehdille tältä levyltä ei tule jäämään. Sen verran rattoisasti reilu kolmivarttinen kuitenkin kuluu kerta toisensa perään, että jotain omaa tässä on keksitty."
 
8/10
 
Lähde: SUE

Parin viikon päästä sitten aktivoidutaan myös keikkarintamalla ja määränpäänä olisi Stadi ja club Prkle.
23.3.Pe
 
Architorture 2200
Nowen 2300
Sadistik Forest 0000
 
Liput 6 euroa

Ja yllämainittu tilaisuus olisi tänään

Jotain haastista
 
"Welcome on Aristocrazia Webzine, who are Nowen?
 
Lappis: Nowen is Mikko "Lappis" Lappalainen on guitars and vocals, Markus Taipale on guitars, Jarno Nurmi on bass and Ville Vehviläinen on drums. Official releases are "Where Hell Begins" MCD 2005, "Nothing But Hate" full-length 2010 and "Essence Of Fear" full-length 2012. It is most likely we will hit the studio in 2013 so our third album will be out 2014.
 
You all play in other projects like Serpent Ascending, Witheria, Waltari, Enforce, Sceptical Schizo. Which are the reasons that brought you to create this band?
 
Lappis: Well... First of all, people seem to have wrong knowledge of me playing in Sceptical Schizo. I have never even heard the band and I don't even know what kind of music they play. So there is most likely other Mikko Lappalainen in Finland also who has bandstuff going on. But just to be clear on this matter; Nowen and Witheria are the only bands where I play. And that leads us to the next question. I am the reason why this band exist. As a young boy I wanted to play in a band with other guys but there were no bands available. So I just had to start to build my own band. That happened in 1999-2000. I moved to a bigger city, met the right guys and here we are. I wanted to form a band. That is the reason why we still exist. And second of all, for me and Markus, Witheria is not an "project", it is a full band, just like Nowen. But I don't know what that Enforce is. Our drummers old band perhaps? Ville Vehviläinen plays nowadays in Waltari and Nowen but he has no other bands.
 
Jarno: I wouldn't call those bands projects either. They all just have different approaches and intentions so they all have their own reasons. Nowen is quite different from other bands that I'm part of (which at the moment are Serpent Ascending and Desecresy) and Nowen is much more based on the joy of playing and having some good time.
 
I had the pleasure of listening and reviewing both your albums, I feel that you don't want to follow any trend or put some strange genre just to get attention, you are coherent. How do you write your songs? And how do you decide the lyrical themes for them?
 
Lappis: Hah. You damn right we don't follow any trends! Why should we? Our songwriting style is pretty old-school. My style is just to play guitar. sually, while I play, couple of good riffs will appear to me. At some point I have written the whole song and that's it. When the song is ready we'll go at our rehearsing place and guys will bring their ideas and playing styles into the song. No magic, just enjoying my guitar and playing with it. Nobody really decide our lyrical themes, they just come from somewhere. But usually the theme is something what I have thought about. Maybe our next record is all about love and sex? Of course we all love girls but I think our lyrical "journey" will not include girls and stuff like that in the future.
 
Jarno: I usually get an idea for a riff or a melody that comes to my mind and then I attempt to play it with a guitar. Quite often I fail with this attempt and then the song is ready, haha. When writing lyrics I listen to the song and try to tune in to the feeling. The words just start to flow then.
 
The lyrics, they have something spiritual in your approach to emotions, Lappis is the only composer, right? From what do you take inspiration?
 
Lappis: Actually Jarno also wrote couple of lyrics ("Crown Of Fallacy", "Acts Of Deceit") on "Essence Of Fear". And this is great, I have a sidekick writing lyrics nowadays. I wrote all the lyrics on "Nothing But Hate" and "Where Hell Begins". But I have written most of the lyrics and there is this deep side of me what I like to explore. Just thinking about life, myself, my purpose here and all the things what I love, hate and despise. For example, most of the time I really like to be me but there is this dark side of mine I don't like so much. "The Inner Beast" is all about that. We're just animals, nothing more. So I guess I take my inspiration from within and life/death that surrounds us. It's all about finding your very essence, your soul and what happens there.
 
Jarno: Like Lappis said, on the new album there's two lyrics that I wrote. I just want them to represent what I think and have experienced. The lyrics are based on self-examination and sometimes on certain disgusting religious dogmas. For example the lyrics of "Crown Of Fallacy" can be interpreted questioning the personal god, "The Father" of monotheistic religions or some other false authority. Yet the narrator also questions his own authority. Of course there's more to the lyrics but it would be pointless to reveal it all here. Anyway, I think that kind of lyrics are quite near to the essence of Nowen and the ideal lyrical themes for the band as those themes are something that I think we all can agree with. Though I have to disagree that we're just animals. I agree most of the people are at the stage of living like animals but it doesn't mean that it should be like that. There's more in the essence.
 
Both your albums have direct and straight songs, it's strange but did you notice that this is a rare feature today? People is always trying to do difficult stuff and sometimes the result is not that good.
 
Lappis: Actually I haven't notice that. But I have no clue what kind of music other bands write and play nowadays. My favorite bands are still the same what they were twenty years ago so maybe that is one of the reason why our music is what it is. You know, old Sepultura, Death, Vader, Deicide, Emperor, Immortal, Anthrax, Slayer, Etc.
 
Is it difficult to combine your commitments with your bands to have time for Nowen?
 
Lappis: Not at all. Like I said, for me there is only Nowen and Witheria so there is no time issues.
 
"Nothing But Hate" and "Essence Of Fear", if you had to introduce them to someone who did not listen to them, what would you say to make him listen to it and which are their main qualities?
 
Lappis: If you like fast, tight, energetic, little bit of progressive, skillful and honest metal with natural sounds and great dynamic range, give us a try.
 
How is the Finnish metal scene today, besides the most famous bands?
 
Lappis: I don't pay much of attention to the metal scene in Finland or in the world so I really don't know. Like I said, I listen those old favorite bands of mine so the metal scene in here. I don't really care. Playing guitar is probably the greatest passion of my life but listening music... I prefer movies and books instead. But actually there is this one band that really deserve to be mentioned here and that band is Crystalic. They played awesome metal and they made two albums. Unfortunately they decided to call it off last year. The legacy of Chuck Schuldiner was strongly presented in their music. Great band, hopefully they will continue their career at some point.
 
Which differences did you notice among the last decades ('80-'90, '90-2000, 2000-today)?
 
Lappis: Hahhah. Read above. But seriously, couple of things came to my mind; Sepultura died (for me) and Chuck Schuldiner died. And of course there was this Blaze Bailey-era in Iron Maiden but that didn't work so well in my opinion. His solo stuff is great though.
 
Second release and another time you worked with Violent Journey, how did you get in contact with Vesa and how is the relation with him?
 
Lappis: We have a long history with Vesa. It was 2003 when we were first time in contact with him. It was a CD-collection for finnish underground demobands and Vesa asked if we would like to get part of that collection. There were other collection also in 2006. We really trust the guy and hopefully our relationship with him will continue. Vesa is all about music, just like us. He is an truly old-schooler.
 
Does Nowen play live? Did you already have the chance of playing songs from "Essence Of Fear"?
 
Lappis: Hell yeah, we play live! Now we have this new album is out and our first gig since "Nothing But Hate Tour" is coming in 23.3 at Helsinki. And there is more to come. But I don't like to play gigs too often. I have other things in my life also what I like to do.
 
Metal is renewing itself, there are trends like metalcore and more and more young guys are approaching this world, which advices would you give to people who have just entered in this world which sometimes has some contradictions?
 
Lappis: Be yourselves and listen to your hearts.
 
Which are the albums that you consider fundamental for what you are today both as musicians and as men?
 
Lappis: There are quite many to mention... But here are THE albums:
Anthrax - "Among The Living"
Sepultura - "Beneath The Remains"
Death - "Leprosy" and "Individual Thought Patterns". Actually all Death-albums.
Metallica - "Ride The Lightning"
Emperor - "In The Nightside Eclipse" and "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk"
Deicide - "Once Upon The Cross"
Faith No More - "Angel Dust"
Dream Theater - "Scenes From A Memory: Metropolis Part II"
Iron Maiden - "No Prayer For The Dying"
 
Jarno: I just want to add one single favorite of mine that is Sentenced's "North From Here".
 
What are you preparing now? Some dates to support "Essence Of Fear" around Europe or what else?
 
Lappis: It would be awesome to hit the road across the Europe and play some live shows but at the moment we are just focusing to play our live shows here in Finland. we don't have any gigselling management behind us so it is not easy to do live shows abroad. And of course I try to write new music all the time. There is five-six songs ready for our third album so things are looking pretty good in that section. If someone wants us to play in their city, feel free to contact us.
 
Thanks for the time spent with us, the last message for our readers is up to you.
 
Lappis: Enjoy your lives, it is not that long.
 
"
 
Joku arvostelu jostain:
 
"Nowen is a group of Death / Thrash Finnish I had the pleasure of discovering a few weeks ago with his latest album entitled Essence of Fear, his second since its inception in 1999.
 
Working in a modern mix of Thrash and Death melodic metal Nowen offers original and does not fall the trap of copy / paste several formations so characteristic of this kind. The musicianship and production are flawless and LBUM full of catchy riffs and strippers.
 
Perfect for "headbanger" and shake his cage, ideal for car or public transport. Essence of Fear is a very good album to discover and not require multiple listens to appreciate its true value.
 
8.5/10
"
 
CD.Onissa ale. Essence of Fear 5,95€:
http://cdon.fi/musiikki/nowen/essence_of_fear-17620730
 
Ja Nothing But Hate Fireboxilta 4,95€:
http://www.firebox.fi/store/?p=en.levyt.item.html&pid=16459

" Kenties yksi tämän vuoden hehkutetuimpia tapauksia on Nowenin kakkosalbumi Essence of Fear. Tämä jo yli kymmenen vuotta kasassa ollut yhtye uhkaa tarjota uutukaisellaan jotain huomattavasti sielukkaampaa kuin tämän päivän metallibändit yleensä.
Ymmärrän, mitä yhtye hakee edellämainitulla. Albumilla on selkeä punainen lanka, joka kantaa läpi albumin. Debyytti minulla on valitettavasti kuuntelematta, joten siihen en osaa EoF:a verrata. Tämän kyseisen albumin kohdalla kuitenkin tyylilaji osuu meikäläiselle juuri eikä melkein. Sopivasti old-school-hengellä toteutettua thrashin ja deathin parittelua ilman modernia kliinisyyttä, umpitukkoisia saundeja ja persoonattomia vokalisteja. Nowenilla on erittäin laadukas paketti kasassa ja levyä voi hyvällä omatunnolla pyöritellä päivästä toiseen soittimessa ilman puutumisen tunnetta. Riffeissä piisaa, vokaaleissa on ärjyä ja karjua ja lyömäsoitinosasto paukuttaa minkä ehtii. EoF miellyttää tärykalvoja kaikin puolin.
Lisäksi on nostettava esiin levyn kansitaide. Nykyään metallialbumien kannet tahtovat koostua lähinnä törkeän näköisistä digitaaliefekteistä ja täydellisesti loppuun kalutuista pääkalloista, mutta Nowen turvautuu perinteiseen käsintehtyyn grafiikkaan, tekijänä tässä tapauksessa Noora Ekström.
Albumi, jolla musiikki toimii niin kuin pitää, tuotantojälki on erittäin hyvällä maulla ja ammattitaidolla tehty ja joka on höystetty perinteisemmän kaavan kautta tehdyllä kansitaiteella, on juuri sellaista, mitä tämän päivän metallimaailma kaipaa. Essence of Fear on täydellinen vastaisku modernia metallia ja toimintatapoja vastaan."
 
10/10
 
Lähde: Miasma-magazine, Juuso Viljanen
 

 
Ja 14.9. Perjantaina Lahden Torvessa;
 
N. 2300 Nowen
N. xxxx Evil Angel
 
Liput 5 €

Pakko sanoa että itse pidin varhaisemmasta materiaalista enemmän kuin Essence of Fearista, mutta se nyt vain onkin minun, haiseva mielipiteeni.
 
Essence of Fearilla tulee yllättäviä soitannollisia vivahteita moderneista bändeistä kuten Arch Enemy.
 
Supportaan bändiä kyllä täysillä koska kuultuani esim. biisin Nothing But Hate aikoinaan totesin heti kyseessä olevan tyylitajuinen yhtye.

Yllättävät soitannolliset vivahteet kyllä itsellenikin, koska AE ei ole minulle tuttu miltään osin. Joskus vuonna kirves ja vasara pätkän kuullut ja siihen se jäikin. Totesin skeidaksi omiin korviini.
Nähtävästi nyt sitten juntataan saman tyylin skeidaa...
 
Keikka Torvessa kuitenkin 14.9 Evil Angelin kera ja tämähän on jo aika lähellä

Lappis: Yllättävät soitannolliset vivahteet kyllä itsellenikin, koska AE ei ole minulle tuttu miltään osin. Joskus vuonna kirves ja vasara pätkän kuullut ja siihen se jäikin. Totesin skeidaksi omiin korviini.
Nähtävästi nyt sitten juntataan saman tyylin skeidaa...
 
Keikka Torvessa kuitenkin 14.9 Evil Angelin kera ja tämähän on jo aika lähellä
 
Juu, täysin samaa tyyliä kaikki osa-alueet 100-0. Tubessakin näköjään relatedeissa Arch Enemyä :D juum.

En kyllä itse Nowenissa hirveästi yhtäläisyyksiä Arch Enemyyn näe. Yksi toki on ja se on Maiden-henkiset melodiat mitä molempi bändi viljelee. Riffit ja meininki kuitenkin eri.

Olipa erittäin hyvä keikka! Piti oikein käydä kädestä pitäen kehumassa Lappista(?).
Setti toimi komeesti ja biisit parani loppukeikkaa kohti koko ajan, kuitenkin niin
että kaikki biisit toimi hyvin jo alusta lähtienkin. ,,/

Kiitosta vaan! Mukavaa oli, vaikka keikka ei bändin mielestä nyt ihan sinne terävimpään kärkeen kiilannut tällä kertaa. Ihan ok joka tapauksessa