TWILIGHTNING – Swinelords

The Finish Heavy Metal band Twilightning released their third full-length album in March 2007, entitled Swinelords. The name Twilightning should sound familiar to your ears, because after all, they have toured with great names like Helloween and DragonForce.

With this album they take on a new direction. While the previous albums (Delirium Veil, 2003, and Plague-House Puppet Show, 2004) were more Power Metal oriented, Swinelords is filled with Melodic Heavy Metal. A lot of the material on this record sounds similar to the Melodic Heavy Metal band Domain … try picturing A.O.R. going Metal.

Since they released Plague-House Puppet Show in 2004, they lost their keyboardist, but decided they didn’t need a new one. This is another element that has “forced” the band to change their musical style and Melodic Heavy Metal seems to fit well for this band. Also, the lyrics seem to be more reflective and better. Take for instance the song “Swinelords” where they deal with merchandising, consumerism, and religion; labeling the people in charge of MTV the “Swinelords.”

Pöyhiä’s vocals are soaring and strong. His voice is just as fit for this genre as it is for Power Metal. A great proof of this is shown in “Not A Word.” This song is the highlight of the record. It’s an acoustic guitar/vocal-driven semi-ballad. It’s great to hear the vocals on this one. Pöyhiä really gets to show his skills and he doesn’t disappoint anyone. They’ve added some kind of effect to his voice and it sounds like he’s singing into a box or something, but the sound is right for the song. It gives it the little extra.

The guitar duo Sartanen and Wallenius should also be explored. They provide some good melodic guitar solos on this record and the riffs are great as well. For instance, check out the cool riffing on “With The Flow” or on “Vice Jesus.” On “Vice Jesus,” Pöyhiä’s tops it all with his great vocals. Halfway through the song there is an instrumental part where the guitars and bass are riffing away on one note, before one of the guitars sticks out and makes a run for it. The solo that follows isn’t the most advanced piece of guitar work you’ve ever heard, but it’s melodic and not too long and right where it’s supposed to be.

The production is great and the instruments are well mixed together. The music on this album is much slower than on the previous two. As mentioned, they don’t have keyboards anymore, and they rarely use double bass drum pedals, but they’ve added things like acoustic guitar and have put more effort into the lyrics than earlier. The problem is that it’s not spectacular in any way. The material on this record is much too common, and with the exception of “Not A Word,” there are no stand-out songs on this album. Swinelords is an “ok” album, and so are the songs, but there is nothing more than that.

Lineup

• Tommi Sartanen – Guitar
• Ville Wallenius – Guitar
• Jussi Kainulainen – Bass
• Juha Leskinen – Drums
• Heikki Pöyhiä – Vocals

Swinelords has 10 tracks with a total running time of 44:44