If you look at the album cover of Heartrot you might be in a state of confusion to deal with a prog or psychedelic rock album. But no, the long-awaited solo project of Amorphis guitarist Tomi Koivusaari called Bjørkø is a surprising treasure of metal diversity. Those who remember (or will (re-)discover) Tales From The Thousand Lakes album by Amorphis will be pleased to hear some similar old school style tracks on this album.
But don’t get us wrong, Heartrot isn’t only dealing with that gracious influenced folk death metal past. Koivusaari ventures a distinct artistic vision on Heartrot. He gathered a wide variety of musical guest for this album. The lead single of the record, ‘The Heartroot Rots’ rekindles Koivusaari’s collaboration with vocalist Jeff Walker of the almighty British grindcore death metal band Carcass co-operating to one of the heaviest neck breaking songs on the record. And it doesn’t stop there, the album features an amazing lineup of male and female vocalists contributing in multiple languages.
The songs contain a remarkable combination of wealthy metal atmospheres supported by the talented band members Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth, ex-Paradise Lost) on drums, Lauri Porra (Stratovarius) on bass, and Janne Lounatvuori (Hidria Spacefolk) on synths. Koivusaari conjures not only with catchy metal and acoustic guitar work, he also serves us an awesome high speed black ‘n roll track (‘World As Fire And Hallucination’) with nobody else than Dimmu Borgir’s Shagrath on vocals. Part of the song lyrics are written by Koivusaari’s old Abhorrence bandmate Jussi “Juice” Ahlroth and were interpreted by the performing lead singers (Shagrath, Jeff Walker, Petronella Nettermalm, Marko Hietala and Tomi Joutsen of Amorphis), while Mariska, Ismo Alanko, Jessi Frey and Addi Tryggvason wrote their own words.
Our most favourite song is ‘Hooks In The Sky’ which is starting with an old school psychedelic organ intro slowly evolving into ethereal and acoustical influenced structures with death metal grunts and clean vocals into an epic metal song. Heartrot is without doubt an outstanding album wandering through versatile styles of metal. Bjørkø’s debut album is a highly recommended (must have) end of the year present with delicious ear candy for every kind of metal fan.
