#VAGABONDZREVIEW: EMERALD FOREST - EERIE SILENCE

What's up people! I’m back with a review.

Emerald Forest is a Finnish female-fronted band from Valkeakoski. The band had their line-up changed for several times and even had a break for indefinite period. Now they are ready to rock with their new EP called Eerie Silence that was released earlier this year.

To take you into account, I’m sharing Emerald Forest’s bio from their social media account:

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Emerald Forest is a metal band from Valkeakoski, Finland. It was formed by the drummer Kalle Laakso in 2011. He called in singer Emma Heino and bassist Ari Malm, whom he knew from his previous projects. He also invited guitarist/bassist Antti Salmi. Kalle and Antti played together as teenagers, but haven't been in contact for a long while. At the beginning, the band was called "Forest People". During the first year, Forest People composed three songs: Sentenced, Normal Life and Diving Crocodile. In 2012 Ari left the band, and Mika Nieminen joined in as bassist. Band's name was changed to Emerald Forest. Under that name the band released their first EP "Love it" (2012). It was recorded at Drophammer Studio with sound engineer Matias Helle. The EP included songs Sentenced, Diving Crocodile and The Pairs. Release of the EP was followed up by touring locally. In 2016 Mika decided to take a break. Johannes Juhola was asked to play in a live lineup, and soon afterwards he joined the band as a full member. Also Mirva Hirtolahti visited briefly as a keyboardist/ backing vocals. At the same time recordings of the LP started at Inka Studio with Matias Helle again. Mika came back to record bass tracks, but it was his final contribution to the history of the band. Recordings took two years, because of the breaks in the process happened due to members' personal reasons. Finally, the LP "The sound of.." saw the light in 2018."The sound of." included ten songs - Squeeze; Sentenced; Normal Life; Diving Crocodile; Unhuman; Someone Sang; Sex, Hugs and Conversation; Along the Borderline; The sound of..; The Pair. In 2019 a couple of gigs were played, and simultaneously the band worked on some new material. In the end of 2019 Emma decided to leave the band. The last gig was played in "PuksuRoom" Helsinki on 30.11.2019. After that Emerald Forest announced a break for an indefinite period.Luckily it didn't last long, as "Emerald Forest" started 2020 with a new singer/violinist Tanya Birdcherry. World's Covid-19 pandemia slowed things down a bit, but, nevertheless, band played few private gigs and started recording new material. The bands first professional music video "Silent Doors" was released on 11.11.21 reaching over 8k views quite rapidly. EP "Eerie Silence" saw the light on 11.1.22 and is available for streaming and downloads on major digital platforms. On 12.6.2022 band released anime video for the song "Ordinary guy" which was created in collaboration with 17 years old artist Norberto Rosewhite. In May, 2022 Emerald Forest got fresh blood in band, when guitarist Marko Sand joined our forces.

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Let’s start with the review straightaway!

Butterflies

The opening track of Eerie Silence captures right from the start! As I was saying in my earlier reviews, it's not necessary that you should put tones of advanced elements to the song intro - you can light it up with short piece of music that will turn your attention to vocals. In case for Emerald Forest, it was a winning point.

Speaking of the beginning of the song, it does sound big and impressive for me. According to what I’ve heard in intro, I catch some possible impacts for the band. I can pick out end of 70s and beginning of 00s era joining forces. The gloomy shades of the song are represented by heavy guitars and lower section instruments, and I'm sure this sound would be really popular somewhere between 90s-10s. What adds up to the blackened atmosphere is vocals, that both have old-school underground background and modern metal flavor. Also, I do have a feeling that I've already heard something have sounded in a spirit of Within Tempation, since the lead singer surely has similar singing style.

The first track of the EP creates the atmosphere of heaviness and melancholy. The big role is played by lyrics; the most convincing effect I noticed in chorus when lyrics and the melody perfectly add up to each other highlighting the emotions marked in initial idea. Therefore, Butterflies strike a chord with my perception of music and I start feeling it.

The music is something I find incredibly magnetic here. It's totally my cup of tea with all the darkness prevailing and of course old-school influence that I've been always appreciating in music. The most captivating amongst the entire instrumental track is guitars that are made heavy and matching to the song atmosphere.

Chorus of Butterflies is catchy, truly catchy one. The first chorus goes in a tune with verse while the second one creates sharper and deeper atmosphere of the song. The instrument helping underline that is violin that suits heavy metal music and this song in particular. Although, it does seem to be too stand out in some moments as if something went wrong with the dynamics.

Violin has become the soft light of Butterflies making it expressive and powerful; moreover, it nicely compliments the vocals that keep being lingering.

Butterflies is a professional and structured song; it would be great option for the band to hit the radio station with this one to make a name for themselves.

Silent Doors

The second song of the EP covers up with its peacefulness and tranquility.

Silent Doors went even gloomier than Butterflies. Although, it seems to me that the lead singer is a little bit shy because I can't feel the entire power of her vocals. As if something doesn't let her to show what she's able to do. To my mind, Butterflies has more potential in terms of vocals.

Violin makes real magic ones again adding incredible shades to the song's atmosphere. Also, I'd like to say some words about the guitar riffs that kick a great deal.

What does really astonish me, is the appearance of growls, although on one hand, it was predictable as soon as Emerald Forest mentions death metal when describing their genre. The idea with the growls was good but it seems, the transition from the clean part was a bit obscured. Moreover, it feels like I can't hear full potential of growls as well as clean vocals - something is lost or left unsaid... To my ears, I'd have made the higher register more distinguished to make this part standout and brighter. But of course, it's only my approach to mixing.

The ending of the song went a bit messy and crumpled - only have we heard the growls and they have faded to instrumental outro. It doesn't feel like the end for the song at all. Maybe the idea wasn't entirely worked out or it just should be like that. It seems like the visual side of the song was made many levels higher than the record itself (check out the music video to make sure).

Faster

I notice the significant trail of debut Battle Beast record and then lead singer Nitte Valo. Faster keeps two main directions in its structure – as for me it’s old-school punk and new wave of power metal.

This song is truly captivating and after Silent Doors, it’s a breath of a fresh air to the EP. Faster holds independence and freedom inside, and I can name it a true rebel song.

The vocals are worked out really nice here, although to my taste the vocals are way to clean for such playful and insolent spirit of Faster – if the vocals were a little bit husky, that would be surely a true banger and possibly the most popular song of Emerald Forest.

Ordinary Guy

The only unplugged song of the EP. I’m all time supporter of unplugged elements in heavy metal music.

In spite of previous songs, I hear better mixing work here, although the vocals go higher than they should have to. This effect is distracting and you can easily miss the storyline. Especially, it can be heard closer to the end of the song when the vocal go sharper and sharper. Even after the heavy part started, the vocals still seem to be going the other direction…

Anyway, the instrumental part here rocks a great deal and the production result is better.

Let's make the conclusion NOW

I’ve listened to much music, tones of LPs, EPs, singles. Out of my experience, I can name Eerie Silence a nice amateur release. I heard interesting and catchy moments across the EP; having re-listened to Butterflies and Faster, I can claim that the band have a chance to go further with their music. I hear the great potential for namely those songs. But some things went a little bit messy that doesn’t let me build the entire conclusion about EP.

First and foremost, while listening to the record, I couldn’t help thinking that the band hasn’t yet determined their main direction. Almost every song of the EP works convincing individually, but as for releasing them in a single EP, they are far too different. Butterflies and Silent Doors makes gloomy and heavy impression of the band’s background while Faster and Ordinary Guy have more independence and party spirit. In my opinion, it could be better if the songs were released either as singles or a part of the LP. At least those songs would have been more united because of having the other songs that could have made the transition smoother and more natural.

Some words to be said on production. As for me, it felt like a band couldn’t wait to release their EP and some moments left underworked and uncertain. The greatest effect of being in a hurry I heard from Silent Doors. The most astonishing fact for me is that the music video quality was many levels higher than the actual studio recording.

Generally speaking, it seems that the music is in lack of harmony and organization in some moments. The final mix turned out to be rough that is slightly uncompleted and underworked. It’s expressed in “sandy” mids, nondynamic vocals, sharp and jumping violin (that significantly covers the vocals, not complimenting them). Therefore, in terms of a song as composition having specific organization and harmonic compatibility, I can’t claim that the band fully arranged the final mix preparations. To better describe the sound of EP, I can draw a parallel with a sound check at the live show, when some instruments are messy and go out of tune. Emerald Forest surely needed to take a bit more time to make their music lively, powerful and emotional.

A word to be said about vocals. As I’ve already mentioned, it seems the lead vocalist is a bit shy when it comes to doing her business. She surely has potential but much work is to be done before making a professional release. In some moments, it appeared that the vocals go their own way instead of being a part of the mix. You can hear it the best in Ordinary Guy when music and vocals go separate ways. The vocals go much higher as if there’s no music to be followed. If the main accent was put on vocals but music, they should be more lively and uninhibited to really strike a chord with a listener.

If Emerald Forest are planning to start working on album, it’s time for the band to take a better care of their final mixing and mastering that are vital for the record to be dynamic and lively. And of course, it would be a big step from amateur release to professional.

Watch music videos for Silent Doors and Ordinary Guy.