When it comes to Finnish Power Metal, you'll often think of Nightwish, Stratovarius or even Sonata Arctica first. Here to add to that line-up are some "extreme" power metal bands like Norther, Kalmah and these guys, otherwise known as melodic death metal of course. These guys have been around since the mid-90s making some pretty sweet releases with their peak, in my opinion, with Follow the Reaper. They then made a comeback album in 2013 with Halo of Blood including the influence of black metal on some tracks. Here we are now....
I Worship Chaos is a very special and popular release here. Much like how Halo of Blood included more black metal, this album infuses more power metal, and they show it off quite well. The entire album is 10 tracks and about 44 minutes. Yeah, this album is conceivably longer than anything from the past here, although many tracks are in the 4-5 minute range so that could be part of the reason. We start off with iHurt which is speedy and goes by pretty quickly. Morrigan slows things down, but only slightly. My Bodom is arguably the most thrashy track on here and feels like what would happen if say, Machine Head turned power metal. But my favorite on here is the longest track on here, All For Nothing. As the second to last track it dedicates the latter half for guitar and keyboard solos, which sound amazing by the way, and then just slowly fades out. It honestly feels like it should be the final track for it's epicness, but Widdershins took the end spotlight. Although I still feel All For Nothing is more of a perfect ending, Widdershins does have some things to bring to the table. For one, it takes a more metalcore approach with the breakdowns and everything. It's interesting to see these guys experiment a little bit with their sound a little bit and the breakdown does sound nice as well, albiet it comes out of nowhere. They also made three covers, one of which was from the Finnish metal band Amorphis, and it sounds decent too. I assume however that the keyboard is the folk instruments for the cover. Is it perfect? Not really, it has its flaws, although it's very similar to that of Disarmonia Mundi from earlier this year where its punches aren't as forceful the more times you do them. It could be a major problem, but it seem like there's enough tracks that keep you trucking along to the end.
I give this album a 9.5/10. I am the Grim Reaper, signing off.