All Hail The Kings!
Is it possible, even plausible to have the words ‘Finnish’ and ‘Supergroup’ in the same sentence. Finland is best known for exporting 3 things • paper, Nokia phones, and the occasional famous ice hockey player in the NHL. But now there’s a fourth..... Finnish Metal Bands. Of a population of 4.5m people, 3.5m are in a metal band of some description. Well that’s what it feels like anyway
The album will be due for UK release June 16th, with ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ released simultaneously as their first single. I personally have been listening to this album for months (released in Finland last Oct) and it has been difficult to keep off my cd player
So to Northern Kings! Northern Kings is comprised of four of Finland's biggest heavy rock vocalists - Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot), Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), JP Leppäluoto (Charon), and J. Ahola (Teräsbetoni, recent entry for Finland in Eurovision). Each vocalist is untrained, but commands their own distinctive vocal sound which ranges from deep tenor, operatic to high pitched falsetto.
Cover Songs are a strange beast, I either love a version covered in exactly the same way, or sometimes covered in a way giving the song a new lease of life, or a completely new interpretation. The latter is what is on offer here. Northern Kings' orchestral arrangements make the original songs sound like cover versions. Vocally, the four Northern Kings singers are just as diverse in vocal range any of the vocalists in Il Divo. However, it's their symphonic rock interpretation that puts a new perspective on the cultural significance of the original songs.
Vocally impeccable, and cleverly arranged, Northern Kings have given a new lease of life to many eighties classics that may have been stuck in the decade that most people will want to forget (not me matey!), but can't.
Reborn could be perceived as a novelty record, but inevitably it soon becomes evident that instead of copying the originals, the band has gone outside the box and done something new with the songs. From the very off, Journey’s ‘Dont Stop Believing’ is given the full treatment, much heavier but still very melodic. If you don’t care for Journey, then you might after this version. Hot on the heels is a belting version of Tina Turner’s ‘ We Don’t Need Another Hero’, unrecognisable at first and then it all sinks in..’Bloody Hell its Tina Turner’s.....’. All the songs are given the Kings treatment, pompous, overblown and downright excellent. Songs by Mister Mister, Cutting Crew, Bowie, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Tull, ELO, Phil Collins, Dire Straits and even Lionel Ritchie are covered. ‘Rebel Yell’ is given the Iron Butterfly treatment, the intro sounding straight out of ‘In A Gadda Da Vida’. All this turned into a very dark version of the original
I must admit I don’t care for all the songs on offer, but that’s because I didn’t care much for the originals, but that doesn’t mean they are bad. If anything, it’s made me listen to them in a different light as they’ve been turbo boosted and then some
Sometimes it’s an easy option for a band to do a cover to fill some space on an album. In the Kings case to do a whole album and still make the songs sound fresh and different is something else.
All Hail The Kings!!!