Axl’s been devoting a lot of e-ink to Kalmah‘s new album 12 Gauge with good reason — because it’s fucking awesome. I’d completely forgotten how awesome Kalmah were until Axl sent me a copy of the new album. A few notes of epic, doomy melodeth later I exclaimed “ohhhh yeah! Kalmah!” then I sparked up a doob and let the music do the talking. For the unfamiliar, if you like dark, doomy Scandinavian music like Insomnium and Swallow the Sun there’s a good chance you’ll like Kalmah (who’ve been doing it for way longer) though their brand is less gloomy and more energetic than the aforementioned bands.

So over the weekend MS Maniac Mike Winston sends us an email comparing the intro of 12 Gauge‘s fifth song “Better Not to Tell” and the classic Pantera track “Hollow.” And I gotta say, he’s onto something; the two intros are eerily similar. I definitely don’t blame Kalmah for biting Pantera, though, and I’m sure all of you musicians out there can relate: how many times have you worked on writing a new song for hours and hours only to realize afterwards that the song (or parts of it) is actually already a famous song that you subconsciously copied? My guess is that the same thing happened here only Kalmah never realized it. Either way the song still kicks ass and the similarities stop after the intro so Big Vin better not sue.

Listen to the two clips below and let us know what you think.

-VN

I don’t think anyone involved in the making of Kalmah’s new video, for the title track from their forthcoming 12 Gauge, meant for it to be taken seriously – it looks to me like they had no budget and no ideas for how to make a good video with no budget, so they just jumped in the snow and started goofing around. But if they did mean for us to take it seriously, well… hey, at least the song rocks!

12 Gauge is out now on Spinefarm.

-AR

This song ain’t about no fish.

Reader Randy Gatto sent us a link to the below stream of “Bullets Are Blind,” a new song off of Kalmah’s forthcoming album, 12 Gauge. It seems it’s been up on YouTube since December, so I’m assuming this isn’t a completely illegal leak, but who knows. If you wanna hear it, maybe you should listen now in case it gets taken down.

In any case, it’s a Kalmah song, which is to say, it will induce whiplash. And I’m being serious when I say I find the title unsettling. What a not-so-gentle reminder that guns don’t kill people, morons with guns kill people.

12 Gauge comes out March 3 on Spinefarm.

-AR

Here’s the cover art for Kalmah’s new album, 12 Gauge. While I’d love to see someone do a really beautiful illustration of a burbot for the band, I think this is pretty cool, too. I like the fact that if one didn’t know it was the new Kalmah album cover, one actually might think that it was just the most metal tapestry, like, ever. I also appreciate the fact that it could be a totally bitchin’ Boy Scout merit badge. “Look, dad! I got my ‘Kill a Giant Bird’ badge!”

12 Gauge comes out March 3 on Spinefarm. I’m fairly certain it is going to rock ridiculously hard.

-AR

If we’re being completely honest, and I see no reason why we shouldn’t be, I was a little underwhelmed by Kalmah’s last album, For the Revolution. It just didn’t have that certain oomph that made The Black Waltz and Swampsong so goddamn good.

But I’m willing to give Kalmah another chance. I mean, they wrote the best song ever about fish vengeance, so they deserve a pass on this one, right?

So. The band has announced a new album, 12 Gauge, to be released on March 3 via Spinefarm. There’s no cover art or new streaming music yet, which seems kinda odd given that we’re just two months out from the album’s release, but maybe that just speaks to how quickly bands can turn around a record in the digital age. I can’t help but be excited for this one.

And speaking of the best song ever about fish vengeance…

-AR

So last week a few of you e-mailed us with rumors that a new Guns N’ Roses song, “Shackler’s Revenge,” would be on the forthcoming Rock Band 2 video game. Diligent reporters that we are, we completely ignored these e-mails. I mean, can you blame us? There’s a crazy Guns N’ Roses rumor every week, most of them amounting to nothing; with no one from team GN’R making any official announcements, it seemed kinda silly to report on crazy rumors.

Well, don’t we feel silly. ‘Cause the rumors were apparently true.

Click to read more…

Iron Maiden have Eddie, Megadeth have Vic Rattlehead, Kataklysm has the Heart Beast, and Kalmah have… this weird old guy. Whatever, this album is still gonna own your ass.

For the Revolution drops April 2 on Spikefarm.

-AR

Back in October we reported that Finland’s Kalmah were back in the studio working a new album; somehow, I missed that the thing is done and being released April 2. The not-particularly-well-titled For the Revolution will be released by Spikefarm and is pretty much guaranteed to kick your ass seven ways from Sunday. This is, after all, the band that penned “Burbots Revenge,” the best melodic death metal song every written about a fish.

Here’s Kalmah’s video for “The Groan of Wind,” off their album The Black Waltz. If it doesn’t convince you of their awesomeness, well, congratulations, you’re retarded.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf" width="430" height="346" fvars="m=4470009;type=video" wmode="transparent" /]

Confused old men are metal.

-AR

Finnish melodic death heads Kalmah have updated their MySpace blog with this exciting news:

“Two years has passed but as we promised there is more to come and now it is about time. Today we started the recordings of our fifth full length album. We started to work on new material almost two years ago and since we do not want to hurry it took the time to put every piece of the puzzle together. We have had great time to work with the new material as always. We did a demo a month ago to prepare ourselves for this main session. The demo worked out well and we are very confident about the new material. There is 9 new swamp metal songs to record.

Click to read more…