Finland's Twilightning are back with their 3rd album, Swinelords. The third album is usually an important milestone in a bands career. We usually see bands rise or fall by the third album, so what is it gonna be for Twiligthning ? Their debut album was, for a lack of a better word : awesome. An almost perfect blend of Heavy Metal from the eighties and the best Power Metal has to offer today. The second album Plague-House-Puppet Show was a good follow-up though in my humble opinion it was tad weaker than the debut album. Still, there was lots of killer songs and the overall sound and feel was pretty similar with Delirium Veil.

I won't lie to you, this third album sounds different somehow, even though its still a mix of 80's Heavy Metal and Power Metal, it seems the Power Metal is getting shadowed more and more for a more traditional metal approach. Not that would be such a big issue, but I found that Twilightning is losing their edge and originality by abandonning the Power Metal elements of their sound. Sure the singer still rocks and I still love his vocal abilities and tone. The guitars seems to have been tuned differently, and the overall sound is different (even if just slightly) from their previous albums. Another thing is that the songs are less catchy, there might be more straight riffs and more conventional (bordeline boring for instance on the main title Swinelord) drumming. The choruses are less catchy (some of them are quite painfull) than before and to me the songs don't flow as naturally as they once did. Maybe I'm nitpicking, maybe I'm just not in the mood for the big injection of Rock'N'Roll elements over the Power Metal elements, and maybe others won't mind. But the fact of the matter is : I do. The album still has some memorable songs, and some really nice moments, even in songs I don't like as a whole. So its not a bad third album, but it feels like a departure from the band into a direction that might very well have them lose many fans on the way, though maybe some new fans will like the more rockin' edge, but I'm not one of them. I still like the nice square riffs the album has to offer, but riffs can't make up for some (borderline) boring songs. The songs I really enjoy on this album are Isolation Shell (opener), The Gun, With The Flow & Wounded & Withdrawn (that songs reminds me a bit of Winger, Pull era ).

The path the band is taking is reminding me of Norther, they started extremly strong with their debut album, and since then its been downhill, with the separation point being the third album for me, the fourth one being simply inaudible compared to the debut. I get the same feeling here with Twilightning, that if the next one is even more in this direction, I will simply lose interest in this band just like I did with Norther (what a waste of majestic talent if you ask me).

In the end, I'm quite disappointed with this album, and while I enjoy good old Rock'N'Roll to a certain degree, I feel that in this particular case it takes away from what was making Twilightning quite original, as they were able to truly blend Power Metal seemlessly with elements from old school Heavy Metal, but now they simply sound like another 80's Hard-Rock / Heavy Metal band. Maybe older metalheads than myself or those who's love for the 80's is stronger than mine will appreciate this album much better than I ever will. If you think you're one of these people then I advise you to check this album out, but if like me you were in love with Delirium Veil, you will find Swinelords to be too much of a musical departure soundwise and might need to give this a serious listen before you buy. Not a bad album per say, but nothing special either, and that's a shame cause this band has talent and I was expecting something else, something more really.