Band:	Norther
Album:	N
Style:	Extreme power metal
Release date:	February 13, 2008
Guest review by:	Windrider

01. My Antichrist
02. Frozen Angel
03. Down
04. To Hell
05. Savior
06. Black Gold
07. We Rock
08. Always & Never
09. Tell Me Why
10. If You Go
11. Self-Righteous Fuck
12. Forever And Ever
13. Sabotage [Beastie Boys cover] [bonus]
14. C.U.S. [bonus]
15. No Way Back [bonus]
16. Reach Out [bonus]

As we all know today, this album marks the end of the Norther era together with Petri Lindroos. And somehow it is ridiculous that so many voices yearn the return of Petri, while at the same time the last albums with his former band mates are rated down and down and down. Of course everyone can see the gigantic differences from album to album since the legendary Mirror Of Madness. At first fell the fast melodies that made people compare Norther to bands like Children Of Bodom and Kalmah. Then the whole music became slower and got a doom metal touch, just like the darkened voice of Petri. At last we got clean vocals of Kristian Ranta, which drove the band even further away from their old days.

Ok well, now it all came to this point, marked with the letter N. The album as a whole can be described as slow, yet symphonic but too doomy to convince as what the band is known for. "My Antichrist" is quite a good opener and promises a good album, but right after that you get a bunch of songs that are all played in the same tempo. Each song is quite a good one, I like the different melodies, but as a whole it is the few kicks and speedy tracks one will miss. One could say the album simply does not start, there is no song that makes you think "Yeahhh!" Quite in the middle we have two different songs, the first one being "We Rock," which sounds great as hell at the first time, but don't listen to often to it! Yeah, they rock, but they don't "metal," that's what you will realize. "Always & Never" is for sure one of the best songs of the album, it contains both the overall mood of the album and catchy parts. Unfortunately it starts the weak passage of the album right after it. The next two songs are way to slow and cheesy and "Self-Righteous Fuck" is the worst song of the album in my opinion. The last song is again a very good one and also one of the best, it also marks a good end to it all.

In conclusion we have a solid album when it comes to slower metal, but as Norther, this album cannot reach the old days of madness. The musicianship is good as always in the band, great (and yet very dark) vocals of Petri together with nice guitar playing and solos. Ranta also plays his guitar well, only his vocals give it a touch of a cheesy rock band, his vocals aren't bad but often annoying. All other musicians are good as well. Highlights are "Always & Never," "Forever And Ever," and "Black Gold." This album is the end of the Lindroos-Norther era and is unfortunately not as good as the other, more awesome ones. Now let's see how the second era will develop, and hopefully we can say "Let's metal again!"