Bakken
Death of a Hero

They are from the place of Samson and Goliath and of course the Olympic and her more well known sister ship Titanic. And you thought they were a norwegian band? You were wrong, the quartet from Northern Ireland released their debut album last year, and it is not me being late reviewing it as I got it just some weeks ago. The album is called Death of a Hero and it has eight tracks, none of which refer to ship building or offshore engineering which is something Belfast the capital of Northern Ireland is very known for. What more to say? Well, the band started in 2011 so they have been working fast to release their debut which is a self financed thing that has a very heavy metal look to it, traditional heavy metal that is.

And traditional heavy metal is what it is. Not much further description than that is really needed, it is straight to the point, distinct choruses and heavy songs. If you want to, you can add that they also show traces of the german styled power metal and some other smaller things. At first glance it does seem like a fairly ordinary album but if you dig just a little beneath the surface you will find that there’s more to it than that. The album has a decent musical depth and is also decently varied over the songs. The production could be better but works quite okay anyway so I have no real problem with that and the album is also decent in length being somewhat over 40 minutes. That makes it sound like a fairly focused album I think.

It is not only focused, it is also good, surprisingly good, and I think this is a good example of how to make heavy metal. It may seem a bit boring at first glance but there is more to be found and such depth is not always the case in heavy metal. Sure you can argue that it is nothing special and I will not really contest you on that but it is still very good heavy metal and it is also attention grabbing which is definitely not always the case with this kind of music. Sure they have things they can do better, I for one would like to hear a better singer. There isn’t really any major problem with the current singer but he is a bit static in style and with a singer that has a better vocal range it would add a lot more dynamics to the music. The production could also be better, but all in all it is still an album I like to listen to and can see myself still playing even now that I have reviewed this album. Maybe not very often but from time to time, when I feel like it.

It is difficult to pick favourites but one song I like is Mystic Mogul, then there are a few more of really high level but the album as a whole is so strong that none of the tracks really stand out. That is another small weakness, the album has no real magical hit song which might act a little bit detrimental. But then again, all these small niggles I have named here are really small and they do not really make that album that much worse and no matter what, it is a great album in my books. Heavy, powerful, none-nonsensical, straight to the point and really good, is how you should think of Bakken because that is what they are.

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