Album Review: Lordi – Killection (AFM Records)

Nobody knows exactly how old the Finish monsters really are or how long they’ve been striking terror into people’s hearts. Officially the Rock/Heavy Metal monsters Lordi were founded in 1992 by lead singer, songwriter, visual art designer and costume designer Mr. Lordi. The band has deep Finnish roots, originating from the city of Rovaniemi, in Lapland. In 2006 they celebrated their international breakthrough by winning the Eurovision Song Contest (“Hard Rock Hallelujah”) They are Finland’s only winners to date and they earned more points than any other artists in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest up to that time.

But is it possible that this is only a pale misperception of our poor, small, pathetic reality? Is there, however unlikely it may seem, another truer reality? What if Lordi would have already been making music since the early 70’s? And what if they have been releasing one hit single after the other since those times and now, almost 50 years later, are looking back on a full collection of songs that have been successful ever since?

This is exactly the idea that Lordi are celebrating, or maybe a more appropriate word is executing, with their newest studio album “Killection.”. Once more Mr Lordi, the master of the masquerade, presents us with one of his ideas, absurd and genius at the same time, and comes up with a concept that has never been done before in the music industry: “Killection” is a compilation album that simply says “what if” Lordi had been in existence since the early 70’s. It contains all their imaginary hit singles from different periods done with painstaking attention to detail using authentic studios and vintage technology. This is how they would have sounded if Lordi would have made music back then and therefore would have had the hit material to release this compilation now.

This is how Mr. Lordi himself sums it up:

“Killection” is a fictional compilation album. It contains songs that Lordi would have written between the early 70’s through the mid-90’s. The compilation contains one “brand new” song from 2019 as well, cause that’s somehow always typical for compilations.

Killection is out on January 31st 2020 via AFM Records.

The concept behind Killection is certainly a fun one, the idea of a fictional concept album something I’ve not seen or heard yet. An album full of would-be Lordi hits spread throughout the eras of rock and metal with short interjections of radio recordings to add some legitimacy to the idea.

Of course this is only something that could work if the tracks that actually make up this ‘compilation’ are actually hits. That’s not quite the case but it is easy to imagine a lot of these tracks being regularly played on radio thanks to simplicity and catchiness.

The likes of the horror themed disco party beats Shake the Baby Silent and Zombimbo are far more fun then they have any right to be. While Horror for Hire, Up to No Good and Cutterfly capture the 80’s so perfectly, Lordi have to be commended.

Then we have the mellow rockiness of Like A Bee to the Honey and Apollyon, the sound really accurate to the era it is trying to capture. No matter how hard you try to deny it, these tracks, amongst many of the others, are absolute foot-tappers.

Not only that, regardless of the differing styles, this is very much a Lordi album. From the tongue in cheek horror lyrics, the groovy rock singalongs and meatier injections of metal, it feels and sounds like the Finnish legends.

It’s safe to say that Lordi have realised the idea they went out to achieve. Even if it doesn’t bring them as much success as these hit singles did back in the day! Have some fun with Killection, Lordi clearly did making it.

Lordi – Killection Full Track Listing:

1. Radio SCG 10
2. Horror For Hire
3. Shake The Baby Silent
4. Like A Bee To The Honey
5. Apollyon
6. SCG10 The Last Hour
7. Blow My Fuse
8. I Dug A Hole In The Yard For You
9. Zombimbo
10. Up To No Good
11. SCG10 Demonic Semitones
12. Cutterfly
13. Evil
14. Scream Demon
15. SCG10 I Am Here

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