Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve

Can't wait for this!!

TWO DAYS...CAN'T WAIT NO MORE....

A very enjoyable album, but I still think that their previous effort was better.

Gets my stamp of excellence

These guys are simply special! \m/ perfect

Well, my first thoughts are the production is better than the first but I don't feel the songs are as "epic"...I gotta play this a few more times.

This album is amazing

Found it below average

The clean vox have a huge improvement over the last album. The songs also seem more varied to me. Great album!

Woah!!, what a nice combination of elements, it takes a bit more to get all of them... but i think is a winner!

Must. Listen.

Will be checking it out soon.

Just finished my first listen... this will probably be somewhere in the strong 8 range, my only major complaint is that As It Is Written should have been the closer.

Edit 2: it's more in the lower 8 for now... well, it is a VERY good album, I'm not disappointed, but... I expected a huuuuuuge improvement from the first one. I really expected an eargasm. They didn't betray in quality, but they did kinda betray my expectations :/

Definitely a pleasant listen so far; don't know where it will fall, though.

Cheeerrrrssss!!!!

If they stopped with all the slowed-down Amorphis moments where they try to get all "folky" and "happy" I'd probably like this a lot more. But it comes off as too... "let's dance to the fiddle around the fire" as opposed to... whatever it is I was expecting from this.

Considerably worse than its predecessor. The clean vocals annoy me too.

Oh, come on!

First Swallow the Sun follows up a great album with an average one and now Barren Earth does the same...
Everything Mikko is a part of this year seems to turn out lame. What the fuck happened?

Barren Earth's debut was brilliant. Not perfect, but diverse and energetic with every song coming across as unique and satisfying in one way or another. With The Devil's Resolve however, it is completely the opposite. The album feels watered down and uninspired while being polluted by the clean vocals and too much keyboard abuse. "Disappointing" is an understatement.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go and cool off for a while...

Written by Draugen on 08.05.2012 at 22:06
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go and cool off for a while...

Agreed with everything you said, although I'm far less passionate about this than you seem to be.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 08.05.2012 at 22:08

Agreed with everything you said, although I'm far less passionate about this than you seem to be.

Might be that I overreacted slightly, but when your high expectations are not met in any way what so ever, it sometimes has that effect.

Written by Draugen on 08.05.2012 at 22:06

Barren Earth's debut was brilliant. Not perfect, but diverse and energetic with every song coming across as unique and satisfying in one way or another. With The Devil's Resolve however, it is completely the opposite. The album feels watered down and uninspired while being polluted by the clean vocals and too much keyboard abuse. "Disappointing" is an understatement.

I wouldn't say that their debut was "brilliant", but it was surely entertaining with its soaring melodies and good production. I agree with everything you say. Very derivative, "let's put out something 'cause 2 years have passed"-kind of album. Not deserving of the praise it gets.

Agree with Draugen. The debut was a genuine breath of fresh air in the genre whereas this one is extremely forgettable.

And the artwork to this is unquestionably the Sarah Jessica Parker of cover artworks.

Written by [user id=4365] on 26.12.2012 at 17:34
And the artwork to this is unquestionably the Sarah Jessica Parker of cover artworks.

Don't see any horses in the artwork.

A good album, but its too "happy" for my taste, and i also dislike the clean vocals.