Kalmah have enjoyed a much more stable line-up than most bands throughout their (now) 13 years of existence and their music has mirrored this idea. Not only are “They Will Return” and “Swampsong” two of melodic death metal’s best efforts, but the band in general has had a habit of unleashing remarkably solid melodic death metal to the ears of their listeners and have never truly disappointed. Sure, “For the Revolution”, 12 Gauge’s predecessor was a bit bland in parts but it marked a return to Pekka Kokko’s much more unique, high-pitched vocals employed upon the bands first three albums. So, it would be fair to assume that those who had heard nothing from the album before its drop date would venture into the bands sixth studio effort expecting much of the same. Not so. Not only does Kalmah return to the much more typical, low end death metal growl heard from bands such as Amon Amarth and Edge of Sanity, but the melodic lead guitars over many of the songs verses are dumbed down and replaced with a much more thrash orientated approach. And boy, does the album suffer for it.
Throughout the whole of “12 Gauge” there is a general feeling of monotony. Sure, the album is perfectly decent from a technical viewpoint, the Kokko brothers (and particularly Antti) putting in a considerable shift and pulling off some of the quickest songs Kalmah have ever crafted, but when a whole album is virtually built upon riffs that are low down and all of which have a similar tempo, monotony creeps into the fray. In fact, one could easily look at “12 Gauge” as a buttered piece of bread. All the good stuff is in the middle and the edges only having smatterings of the bands talent. “Rust Never Sleeps” sounds perfectly decent until you realise the main riff, hell even the basic composition of the song including the main riff is employed much better on later in the album on the title track itself. The three verses of “One of Fail” seem to be last minute additions, the band instead focusing upon duel of the solos between the guitar of Antti Kokko and keyboard of Marko Sneck that takes up a third of the song, and more importantly lurches dangerously close to the wankery of fellow Finns Children of Bodom in its nature.
Elsewhere, the drumming from Janne Kusmin is perfectly competent but is once again nothing special. It is certainly quick, as is necessary as to keep up with the light speed shredding but there is no real sense of occasion as he bangs away on the tubs, no properly good fills to break up the guitar. Bassist Timo Lehtinen can only really be heard when he joins in on the gang vocals on tracks such as “Hook the Monster” and the title track, although this really is only to be expected with such a focus upon the guitar riffs.
But perhaps I am being too harsh upon the band, for here and there are enjoyable moments that raise the overall enjoyability factor of the album quite considerably. As mentioned earlier, the three songs making up the middle of the album entitled “Swampwar”, “Better Not to Tell” and “Hook the Monster” are easily the best of the album, mainly due to the fact that they all introduce something new or exciting to the table. “Swampwar” and its “spoken” lyrics are the only example of this technique used by Pekka Kokko on the album, and when combined with a blistering solo from Antti Kokko it makes for something a bit different, hinting back to the days of Kalmah of old. “Better Not to Tell” is the only song that marks a change in tempo, machine gun riffs traded for genuine groove and no genuine solo, instead a slower guitar run from Antti that adds a lot more melody to the song than previously heard. And “Hook the Monster” has the rare use of melody in the verses and clever and atmospheric keyboard integration from Marko Sneck to match. If it were not for these three songs, then the album would be much more repetitive than it already is.
Something that cannot be excused for is the genuinely rubbish vocalisation of Pekka Kokko. As a guitarist, the man is an all round good egg but on many Kalmah releases, the vocals have always been the weak points of the album. “12 Gauge” is no different and if anything is the vocalist’s weakest effort to date. I have already highlighted the verses of “One of Fail” being particularly last minute, but if one actually takes the time to look at the lyric booklet, needed as for the most part the guy is completely incomprehensible you will notice the incredibly cheesy and cringe worthy lyrics, combining lines of “Don’t call me sexy, I’m Angry” with “To prevail, I am breaking my balls”. Even when the lyrics become decent, such as in “Hook the Monster” on repeated listens the only lyric discernible is “Fishbone in his throat, he will fall”. Kokko could be shouting a whole load of expletives into the mic throughout 90% of this album and I still would not have a clue as to what he is singing about.
“12 Gauge” is something new from Kalmah, but it is ultimately something which does not really work. Sure, the middle of the album gives a false hope of redemption, “Hook the Monster” in particular being a cracker of the song that brings together most aspects from the CD but combines them with whiffs of what the band was in the past. But an over reliance upon thrash orientated riffs and sparing uses of melodic lead guitars, instead being replaced with competently played but ultimately average solo’s , makes the bands sixth studio effort sink into the mire of the genre and do nothing to truly stand out. Solid, not spectacular, and that is a shame indeed.
