Review LAURENNE/LOUHIMO “Falling Through Stars”

“The Reckoning” was the first album from the Finnish metal collaboration Laurenne / Louhimo and the second release is waiting in the starting blocks. As the name implies, Netta Laurenne and Battle Beast‘s Noora Louhimo have teamed up to record eleven new songs, all of which are somewhere between hard rock and metal. It is a thunderous fusion and the two voices go together really nicely.

The name of the latest work is “Falling Through Stars” and it is the title track that acts as a kickstart for this release. It is a song with a darker mood that opens the album, followed by “Damned”. The latter is actually the better of the two as we are listening to roaring metal with a rocking chorus. The song is an excellent symbiosis of both genres and with all the melodic approach “Damned” also comes with some edges.

“To The Dark” is another heavily pounding metal song before the acoustic ear candy “All For Sale” takes over and shows the soulful side of the two Finns. The grooving “The Cradle” is a mid-tempo rocker with a cinematic swing while the galloping “FTS” is a perfect rocker with some screams in the chorus. The two metal singers add with “Let the Light Be Free” a next song that combines the mellow sides of the album with the dark and roaring sound in the chorus.

Having come this far through the album’s tracklist, it becomes obvious that “Falling Through Stas” offers quite a bit of versatility. 80’s metal, hard rock and some heartbreaking moments are the ingredients for a very well made album that entertains from start to finish. It’s not the breathtaking innovations that are the wow factor here. It is the great craftsmanship combined with a good sense of melody that makes ‘Falling Through Stars’ a pretty good release.

“Wait” reminded me a bit of Heart, while the closer “David Bowie and Clyde” ends the album in a soulful and heart-warming fashion.

“Falling Through Stars” is a powerful longplayer with songs that show the wide range of hard rock. At the same time, the two singers don’t shy away from some metallic outbursts, but they also include songs that go straight to the heart. It is fun to listen to this album, as there is no weak spot in this 43-minute rock delight.