Band:	Kalmah
Album:	Swampsong
Style:	Melodic death metal, Extreme power metal
Release date:	July 29, 2003
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Heroes To Us
02. Burbot's Revenge
03. Cloned Insanity
04. The Third, The Magical
05. Bird Of Ill Omen
06. Doubtful About it All
07. Tordah
08. Man With Mystery
09. Moon Of My Nights
10. Suodeth [bonus]

When years ago Children Of Bodom began to gain acceptance and fame among the metal community, similar bands instantly appeared In the scene like Norther and Kalmah, these 2 bands were labeled as CoB clones since then, and it is a label that is very hard to live on. But gladly these 2 bands managed to find their own sound and took away the accusations of some critics, that they were copycatting CoB.

Now, years after, Kalmah presents their third album Swampsong so, what does Kalmah have in store for us? Incredibly catchy and heavy riff-based masterpiece, yes my friends, this album is riff-after-riff of pure headbanging madness!

From The opener 'Heroes To Us' you can enjoy marvelous riffs, creative songwriting, and crushing melodies. This is the new Kalmah, and I must say is good! I sense a lot of trash influences here, in most of the songs. 'Cloned Insanity' has a impressive and catchy guitar line that sticks in your head forever!

After the thick layer of trashy riffs is an excellent keyboard work, that gives a lot of atmosphere to the music, the approach of the keyboards is different this time, it mainly haunts in the background of the songs, which I think enriches the whole "I'm-from-the-swamp" vibe of the band.

'Doubtful About It All' features good harmony between keyboards and guitars, 'Tordah' has some classic Heavy Metal influences and 'Man With Mystery' is more reminiscent of past works of the band.

Kalmah has finally found his sound with this third work, a riff-laden metal attack with haunting keyboards background, and harmony between the rest of the instruments. This work surpasses anything that Kalmah has done in the past, and I recommend it to everyone, so wait for your country release date and get this one immediately.