Band:	Whispered
Album:	Metsutan - Songs Of The Void
Style:	Extreme power metal
Release date:	May 20, 2016
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Chi No Odori
02. Strike!
03. Exile Of The Floating World
04. Sakura Omen
05. Kensei
06. Our Voice Shall Be Heard
07. Tsukiakari
08. Warriors Of Yama
09. Victory Grounds Nothing
10. Bloodred Shores Of Enoshima
    1 - Gozuryu
    2 - The Chord Of A Goddess
    3 - Divine Affection
    4 - The Fury Of The Five

Finland surpasses every other country on earth in producing folk metal, now to such a fantastic extent that the Finns are taking over for other countries that don't produce enough folk metal bands of their own. For those of you unfamiliar with Whispered, this quartet deals in electrifying extreme power metal merged with traditional Japanese elements, like a colder, more calculated version of Chthonic,* or a Japanophile Winter-san.

Whispered tends to stutter through songs in short, staccato bursts, with the guitars especially jerking around very frequently; while this stylistic choice does not necessarily detract from the individual songs, and in fact brings a feeling of death metal to the extreme power template, the disjuncture makes it somewhat difficult to grasp the album as a coherent unit. Metsutan takes some time to warm up, and the best tracks by far can be found in the aft section, but once "Our Voice Shall Be Heard" kicks in, the album leaps forward significantly. "Tsukiakari" goes further in improving the album; after a rather mechanical intro, the song slowly builds into a magnificent, mid-paced crusher with tasteful keyboards and well-mediated melody lines.

I'd wager that Metsutan contains the most Japanese folk elements of any Whispered album, and these elements don't mesh perfectly with the rest of Whispered's sound; the styles of instrumentation often clash and the folk-inspired melodies tend to stack on top of the metallic frame rather than complement it. Moreover, the "instruments" often sound plastic and flat, which does detract from the effect. I get the feeling, though, that this band isn't out to be a totally authentic project rigidly faithful to musical tradition, and the cocktail of genres is not the trainwreck I may have insinuated. If the members of Whispered wanted to, they could very obviously record an exceptional extreme power metal album that would have us all pining for early Ensiferum or Children Of Bodom - but that would be boring. Those bands already exist, and Whispered is out to have fun as well as to shred, so why not get a little silly with the keyboard patches?

While layering on the levels of folk too thickly could be detrimental (after all, a novelty is only a novelty for so long), Whispered has always been very smart about limiting the use of overtly traditional elements and balancing all the aspects of its sound. Each song, at its core, is strong enough and interesting enough to command respect, and the undoubtedly synthesized faux-shamisen/koto/other-repurposed-Chinese-stringed-instrument effects, even if they do sound tacked-on, make the music a lot more fun and original. "Our Voice Shall Be Heard" mixes the two sides of Whispered better than the other tracks, building up a skin-shearing atmosphere with afternoon-at-the-dojo gang vocals, ghostly wind instruments, and some tight, majestic lead guitar work that reminds us that Whispered is, again, more than just a blank slate with some new sounds sprinkled on top. "Victory Grounds Nothing" feels like the opening to the next season of Attack On Titan, and I absolutely have no problem with that.

Overall, it seems as though Whispered has found its most productive combination of sounds in Metsutan. I'm comfortable with the amount of folk elements present on Metsutan, and I hope that Whispered continues to expertly moderate its variety of styles on future releases; the songs themselves possess gravitas enough to firmly ground the album and make it Whispered's strongest to date.

* Also, yes, I know that Chthonic isn't Japanese. None of these bands is. It's fine.