Lordi
The Arockalypse

THE REVIEW

The Lordi are a terrifying Finnish band that emerged in 1996 under the stage of a Kiss concert, their major inspiration, although the two music styles differ greatly. They perform and give interviews only wearing hideous monstrous masks and gothic costumes complete with medieval weapons, all of which is extremely elaborate. They are grotesque, exaggerated, sometimes even quite ridiculous characters, but original. Musically, despite their works being heavily influenced by the previous Hard Rock genre (Kiss in particular), as Mr. Lordi himself says in numerous interviews, they develop a new style midway between Hard Rock and Metal: great power transmitted by guitar and drums (despite the little technique showcased in the various albums), and the unmistakable voice of the alcoholic leader Mr. Lordi, who seems perpetually semi-drowned by phlegm (ugly to say, but it’s true!).

The peak of success for the Finnish band came in 2006 with the album The Arockalypse, a burst of great energy, so far nothing new, since the previous albums had already been like that, but the main reason for the success is called “Hard Rock Hallelujah”; indeed, in 2006 the Lordi participate with this song in the Eurovision Song Contest, a famous music festival where each European nation chooses a group to defend its nation: well, if initially everyone in Finland was against putting five horror movie fanatic monsters on the field, furthermore deemed (unjustly) Satanists, later, faced with so much originality and transgression, people can only applaud; the Lordi win the competition with a number of votes never reached before, and return to Finland to shake the wicked hand directly from the President.

The Arockalypse, which indeed includes “Hard Rock Hallelujah”, despite the success achieved, does not seem like a great work to me, but it is still “fascinating,” with choirs veiled in Epic, and guitar riffs that effectively bring back to previous rock music yet highlight influences of “modern Metal,” thus there is a decent variety of musical streams even within the same piece. Particularly thrilling are, besides the already mentioned masterpiece, “Who’s Your Daddy?” and the ear-splitting opener of the album “Bringin’ Back The Balls To Rock.” However, although the album is absolutely listenable, the tracks are quite repetitive both structurally (with the usual choruses with choirs and keyboard) and melodically.

I think the band’s charm mainly comes from their strong personality shown to the public, forcefully keeping their private lives aside, transforming almost as if they were superheroes, into characters worthy of being depicted in comic books. On the other hand, the lyrics themselves are lacking in meaning and really banal and therefore need to be compensated by a transgressive physical appearance. Also and especially thanks to such appearance, the Lordi in 2006 reached, with the album “The Arockalypse” the MTV European Music Awards (I’m not sure if that’s a great thing after all).