Band:	Korpiklaani
Album:	Karkelo
Style:	Folk metal
Release date:	June 2009

01. Vodka
02. Erämaan Ärjyt
03. Isku Pitkästä Ilosta
04. Mettänpeiton Valtiaalle
05. Juodaan Viinaa [Hector cover]
06. Uniaika
07. Kultanainen
08. Bring Us Pints Of Beer
09. Huppiaan Aarre
10. Könnin Kuokkamies [digipack bonus]
11. Vesaisen Sota
12. Sulasilmä
13. Kohmelo

No one is a stranger to Korpiklaani these days with the popularity of the folk metal genre. Korpiklaani are perhaps the most productive band album-wise, as the band have released an album each consecutive year from 2005 onwards. This means that for the past five albums the band have put out, each one of these were written, recorded, mastered and sent to pressing in under a year. Pretty fast workers we have here then.

Unfortunately this constant stream of folk metal albums has its down sides, and the flashing red lights with Korpiklaani are that each album is exactly the same as each other. Only difference being they just have a different alcoholic beverage being the theme of a few tracks.

This makes Karkelo extremely tedious to listen to. Korpiklaani have moved no where in five years and have relied only on the booming popularity of the genre to put out the sales for each release. If anything, Karkelo shows even less imagination, less talent for writing songs and less musical capability in general.

Obviously "Vodka" is the figurehead of the album, this is a slightly amusing number about everyone's favourite clear liquid, but comparing this song to something the band might have put out some years ago, this is almost an abomination. Korpiklaani have completely lost touch with what makes a good song, just because the lyrics include a highly alcoholic spirit does not automatically make a good song - unless of course you are already under the influence of the vodka. If this is the case you might just pass out in time to miss the rest of the album, saving yourself fifty minutes of lacklustre tosh.

The odd song such as "Juodaan Viinaa" might temporarily brighten your drunken squaller, but on the whole Karkelo shows Korpiklaani almost as a bad parody of itself. If this is your first Korpiklaani album then perhaps you may enjoy the album before moving on to better albums, but for the most of us who have heard this all before; Karkelo is very forgettable and just not worth buying.

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Folk metal
Nuclear Blast
Finland
Length: 51:25