FALL OF THE LEAFE - Aerolithe

Fall Of The Leafe - Aerolithe

11 songs
41:21 minutes
***** ***
Firebox

Bandpage

Starting out as a melodic death metal ten years ago, Finnish band Fall Of The Leafe certainly must have changed their style a lot on their current sixth release Aerolithe. Between the intro Opening and the final Closure, the six-piece has crammed nine radio-friendly modern rock songs that remind of later Paradise Lost and slower Metallica, although Fall Of The Leafe have a more natural and less calculated approach to music. Locating themselves somewhere between hardrock, progressive elements and British modern rock, the band plays unpretentious rock songs that are catchy as hell, and furthermore achieve what so many bestselling bands like Staind or Nickelback fail at: creating an airplay ready sound that doesn’t rely on cheesy clichés like boy-meets-girl lyrics and acoustic guitar ballads.

Aerolithe is kind of a paradoxical album because on the one hand I can think of many artists that seem to have influenced the Finns, but on the other hand it still manages to sound original. The guitars have still enough weight to make this a hardrock album, the keyboards use different enough textures, the vocalist has not only a recognisable and charismatic voice but also a very interesting taste in literature and movies (ok I got that trivia from their homepage), but it’s mostly the very subtle songwriting that eventually combines the duality of on the surface simple patterns with a more complex tapestry once you get deeper into the music. Aerolithe is therefore an album that can be enjoyed on many levels, appealing to a rock radio audience as to the more demanding fan as well.

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