Bjørkø - Heartrot - Metal Epidemic

Bjørkø – Heartrot
Release Date: 1st December 2023
Label: Svart Records
Stream
Genre: Metal, Rock, Gothic Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Melodic Metal, Folk, Atmospheric.
FFO: Ihsahn, Kuolemanlaakso, Amorphis, MMXX, Solstafir, Sinisthra, Mercury Circle.
Review By: Mark Young

Amorphis guitarist Tomi Koivusaari has gathered together a who’s who of extreme metal to add their own vocal stamp to each of the songs presented here. Although a solo project, it’s not a traditional solo album you might find from others. His own view is that it represents a pure collection of songs and the points of view that define each song. Going further, the vocals are delivered in Finnish, Icelandic and English depending on the singer, so you are expecting a real breadth of delivery.

The Heartroot Rots comes at you first, a steady rumble with Jeff Walker’s signature snarl over the top, laden with typical blast beats and low-end it also has a surprising atmospheric feel to it. The vocals provide that diamond hard edge as a softer arrangement comes through, underpinning a spoken word delivery as the song plays out. That softer, melodic nature is on point with Vaka Loka, with a more goth-tinged delivery courtesy of Addi Tryggvason and this is reflected in the music behind it. Its great stuff and in just two songs shows how wide the approach is going to be as electronica, emotional guitar come in to combine with spellbinding effect. Whitebone Wind changes it once more, leaning into the strong vocal style of Marco from Nightwish, providing a more symphonic touch, again heavy with melody. Arrangement is first class, bringing in classic themes exploited to great effect. The backing on this is supreme, everything matching and balancing and for an opening trio of songs you couldn’t argue with these.

This level of craft is maintained right the way through, each track possessing certain qualities that the others don’t have and vice versa. Mixing up that vocal delivery by having individual artists coming in means they avoid having a singer approximating different styles and coming up short. World as Fire and Hallucination is a high point for me, it just rips through and comes in to lift the album up. I was trying to think of comparisons and came up short, apart from Probot where Dave Grohl enlisted his heroes from his youth and wrote to suit their style, which felt a little disjointed at times whereas this has a very organic feel to it. I won’t say that every song hits the high watermark set by the opening three, but they are still great examples of mixing styles. Hooks in the Sky has this Deep Purple vibe behind it (thinking Stormbringer era) with that balance of clean / dirt vocals that give it that extra oomph and make it another stand-out track.

Final two, Magenta with Finnish vocalist Mariska offers a soulful song, her voice commanding and demanding your attention over a simple picked guitar and Reverberations with Sakari Kukko brings saxophones. Which are always welcome.

All things considered; this is one of those records that may pass a few people by, which would be a shame. There is a ton of good stuff on here, from the soulful to the heavy to the melodic, and each of the songs complement each other well. As solo albums go, it does very well to offer up different facets of Tomi Koivusaari abilities as a songwriter and as an arranger. You should really give it a go, its cracking stuff.