{"id":445,"date":"2011-02-04T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=445"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:01:06","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:01:06","slug":"album-review-korpiklaani-ukon-wacka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-korpiklaani-ukon-wacka\/","title":{"rendered":"KORPIKLAANI – Ukon Wacka (2011) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

KORPIKLAANI
Ukon Wacka<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2011)<\/span>
Rating: 5.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Songs about beer, hunting, and being Scandinavian are all very well. Korpiklaani have always appealed to me more above the similar folk stylings of their contemporaries Finntroll and Ensiferum, being the more upbeat of the bunch. Albeit with slightly odd music videos. And so we come to Ukon Wacka<\/em>, the band\u2019s seventh album, and as you\u2019ve probably guessed, not a lot has changed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s both a blessing and a curse in equal measure. While the lead single \u2018Tequila\u2019 is in the same vein as \u2018Happy Little Boozer\u2019 and \u2018Beer Beer\u2019, it\u2019s easily the weakest thing that the band have committed to plastic on this theme. I\u2019m not entirely convinced that the pagans of old had a Mexican drink to celebrate the festivities of Ukko, but I\u2019ll roll with it. The title track is thigh slappingly singa-along, or it would be if it weren\u2019t all in Finnish. While it\u2019s not a complaint (it actually compliments the music very well) and adds to the atmosphere of frozen hinterland shenanigans, it\u2019s really nothing that Korpiklaani haven\u2019t done before.<\/p>\n

What is exceptionally refreshing is that the guitars have been toned back to acceptable levels, after I found 2007\u2019s Tales Along This Road <\/em>borderline unlistenable at the time. Ukon Wacka <\/em>is definitely more \u201cHuumpa!\u201d and less \u201cHOOOOOOAARGH!\u201d. While \u2018Vaarinpolkka\u2019 takes you for an energetic spin round a ceilidh dance floor, the closing \u2018Surma\u2019 is a more relaxed affair, with a traditional folk intro, before the admittedly great riff work drags you in for one more tanked-up dirge until discretion is no longer seen as the better part of valour and the folk pit starts up once again.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been doing this for long enough to know what they\u2019re good at. Korpiklaani have once again made an album that sounds so typically like themselves that it can\u2019t help but be good, and not much else. Ukon Wacka, <\/em>while being an enjoyable record, has the air of a band beginning to stagnate, much like Stratovarius in the early \/ mid 2000s. As a fan, you\u2019ll like it, but as a newbie, start with the debut instead.<\/p>\n

Alex Mullings<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KORPIKLAANIUkon Wacka Nuclear Blast (2011)Rating: 5.5\/10 Songs about beer, hunting, and being Scandinavian are all very well. Korpiklaani have always appealed to me more above the similar folk stylings of their contemporaries Finntroll and Ensiferum, being the more upbeat of the bunch. Albeit with slightly odd music videos. And so we come to Ukon Wacka, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-korpiklaani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11964,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/11964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}