At this point in their career – album 19 in fact (they did release a box set of 7 new albums in lockdown), who would have thought Lordi would be releasing maybe their best album with Limited Deadition! Not only that, so far this year it’s the most fun I’ve had with an album.
Straddling the line between hard rock and traditional heavy metal with their trademark monster and horror themed twist. This isn’t a full-blown concept album, but it does have a consistent theme present throughout the album, presented with the intro and the couple skit tracks throughout. Loosely this one is about haunted collectables.
The joy however is the well-constructed and fun songs. Not everything needs to be boundary pushing. Sometimes just do what you are good at really well!
Addition of new guitarist (Kone) on the previous album really shines on this offering and he’s certainly found his feet. The riffs are really catchy; the solos are reminiscent of 80’s stadium rock like Alice Cooper.
The keyboards add an effective extra layer that plays really well off the guitar, and not something you get in every rock or metal band. Bringing retro sounds and spooky sounds depending what is called for on individual songs. The rhythm section of the drums and bass complement and fill out the sound, my only criticism is that I feel they don’t get as many moments to shine as the guitar or keyboard.
Vocally if you haven’t listened to Lordi before, the delivery is unique. The easiest comparison would be a cross between Lemmy from Motörhead and Alice Cooper. Very gravelly, but not screaming or growling vocals like you’d find in other metal sub genres. There is also effective use of clean backing vocals to add extra layers and balance out Mr Lordi’s gruff style.
Different tempo and style songs are used to great effect to keep the listening experience interesting. It doesn’t have jarring style changes, they have a consistent vibe. There are Painkiller era Judas Priest style songs with Syntax Error. Slower style stompers with Skelephant in the Room and Hellizabeth. 80s power ballad with Collectable.
On repeat listens I still find the album an overall fun and rewarding experience, helped a lot by the catchy nature of the songs. The skit elements over time do become redundant and could easily be removed from a playlist leaving just the songs. It would also make the 16 tracks on paper seem less daunting to the uninitiated – 5 tracks here are skits, leaving a more normal 11 tracks. When you look at the actual runtime (including the 5 skits) you are only looking at a 45 minute runtime, which soon blasts by.
Having listened to the album a lot since its release, this could be a surprise sleeper hit of the year. I’m also excited to see if the monsters can keep this momentum going into their next release.
Top tracks: Syntax Terror, Fangoria, Hellizabeth
