Band:	Warmen
Album:	Here For None
Style:	Progressive power metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. Warmen Are Here For None
02. The Driving Force
03. A World Of Pain
04. Too Much, Too Late
05. Night Terrors
06. Hell On Four Wheels
07. The End Of The Line
08. Death's On Its Way
09. The Cold Unknown
10. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [Ultravox cover]

With the tragic finality of Children Of Bodom's end, and with other bands like Norther long time gone, one could say that they don't make 'em like they used to. Warmen now make them like they used to.

And it makes a lot more sense why Warmen continue that legacy considering that there's members of both Children Of Bodom and Norther in their ranks. But that's more something that's very relevant to me who just got into the band and hasn't heard any of the older Warmen albums until a couple of hours ago. When I first stumbled upon Warmen's Here For None, it was more of a "sure, why not" moment that made me put it in my "catching up to new releases" queue, and my reaction, like many others', was "Hey, this sounds a lot like Children Of Bodom" and liking it for that, without being aware of the lineup connection. But Warmen is actually a pretty old project.

The main person of interest here is Janne Warman, who has been Children Of Bodom's keyboardist from 1997 until their breakup, and his guitarist bother Janne Warman (hence the band's name "Warmen"). The band was formed in 2000 and released their debut album that same year, so they're contemporary with Children Of Bodom and Norther's heydays, even predating the latter's debut album. But up until recently, Warmen was actually more of a neoclassical tinged power metal band without that much in terms of the harsher leanings they currently have. Judging by what I heard, by the fact that I haven't heard of them before this album, and by the fact that their only other review here is a 6.0, I wasn't missing out that much. Here For None though? A new 2023 lineup that includes Norther's Petri Lindroos on vocals? Sign me up.

In a way I don't think it's a coincidence that Warmen is reviving to fill Children Of Bodom's shoes just as that place vacated forever. Warmen sound more like Children Of Bodom now than in the songs where they actually had Alexi Laiho doing vocals (a lot of which weren't even good). I'm more familiar with Children Of Bodom than Norther, though I've never been as huge of a fan of either of them, but the material of Here For None sounds more similar to the former's more return-to-form material of their last six years, clearly aiming for the band's heyday but not really reaching the same heights. So the songs themselves do their job of keeping the torch of this extreme power metal sound aflame, still keeping it pretty exciting.

The musicianship is the one thing that really sets this apart. From how great the guitar solos sound, to how Petri brings a bit of Ensiferum in the clean vocals of "The End Of The Line", to how very specific Warman's keys still sound, even if some of the production makes the keys sound a bit too crusty at points when the keys are the focal point. The album just sounds like a really fun time, accentuated by the ending cover. As someone who discovered Children Of Bodom through their cover of "Oops, I Did It Again", it was really heartwarming to see that tradition continued, even if it's a less silly pop song.

Don't take my word for it since I haven't actually listened to all of their albums, but I can't imagine their previous albums being as fun as this. It is a bit telling that there's another band that I'm namedropping more than the actual band I'm reviewing, and Warmen aren't complete clones, but the Venn diagram of the appeal of both bands is pretty much a circle.