Throne Of Chaos - Pervertigo


Year of Release: 2002
Label: Spinefarm
Catalog Number: SPI156
Format: CD
Total Time: 37:56:00

I'm a fan of melodic death metal. I'm also a fan of melodic power metal. So it should come as no surprise that I enjoy Throne of Chaos's fourth full-length album (their third with Spinefarm) - which is a mixture of both. [Actually, this is their second full-length, according to the band website; there were two demos released prior to the Spinefarm deal; a demo EP Equilibrium (1996) and the EP Fata Morgana (1997) -PW ed.]

Whilst some bands will use different mixtures of vocalists - Nightwish (operatic female vocals with the addition of male vocals), Arabesque (twin female lead vocalists), Oratory and Theatre of Tragedy (both male and female vocals) - Throne of Chaos employ two session vocalists who each have a share of the lead vocals. Whilst one does lead on one song, the other does backing vocals and then it is reversed - and this trend is followed until the end. The two vocalists in question are deathy vocals of Pasi Nykanen - a relative unknown from my research - and the smooth, melodic power vocalist in Niklas Isfeldt. For those who don't know Niklas, his claim to fame is that he is the lead vocalist for the Fredrik Nordström (producer and guitarist) led Dream Evil, who recently released their album Dragonslayer Niklas also appeared on the first two Hammerfall albums as backing vocalist. Listening to Pervertigo is like listening to a various artists album crossing over between melodic death metal (ala a less intense Children of Bodom) and happy melodic power metal (ala Sonata Arctica or Supreme Majesty). The guitarist and previous vocalist Taneli Kiljunen also partakes in a few screams, too (the song "Sleep"). The song titles also express the diversity of the album from the power tracks such as "No Nothing," "Truth and Tragedy" and "Reason To Be" to the death like titles of "Johnny B. Dead," "Fistfucking & Alienseed" and "The System."

With this system in place, the album moves fairly evenly and consistently, although sometimes the music is unforgiving in its unoriginality. The title track plays homage to Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom, Sinergy) that it sounds too copied. At the same time though, it also uses black metal, thrash metal, and a whole host of any metal genre within the 38 minutes - it certainly takes you for a ride during that time. All credit to the five permanent band members for being able to write this well for an album as assorted as this and if they try this again, I hope they make it a tad more original and possibly use vocalists out of their elements - could you imagine a power vocalist singing to melodic death metal music or a more aggressive vocalist singing to power metal music? Now that would be cool.

Throne of Chaos have put together a great album that, with an open mind, will be enjoyed by a lot of people. For close minded listeners, try something else.

Similar To: In Flames, Dream Evil

[This review originally appeared November 2002 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]


Tracklisting:
Johnny B. Dead (4:07) / Pervertigo (4:09) / The System (2:30) / No Nothing (4:30) / Fistfucking And Alienseed (4:40) / Truth And Tragedy (4:37) / Sleep (4:41) / Reason To Be (5:02) / Game (3:40)

Musicians:
Pasi Nykänen - vocals
Niklas Isfeldt - vocals
Rasmus Nora - bass
Taneli Kiljunen - guitar
Joiku Harmaja - guitar
Carl Sjöblom - keyboards
Teemu "Snake" Laitinen - drums

Discography:
Equilibrium (demo EP) (1996)
Fata Morgana (EP) (1997)
Menace And Prayer (1999)
Pervertigo (2002)
TOC - Loss Angeles (2004)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin FI

Added: March 27th 2005
Reviewer: Gary Carson
Score:
Artist website:
Hits: 1948
Language: english

  

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