For those who follow a little more the activities of Floor Jansen or Jorn Viggo Lofstad, Northward is a matter of concern for over a decade. Yes, the preparation for this album started somewhere in 2007, but the non stopping business of the two musicians, always left it behind.
It’s October 2018 and Northward, the homonymous album of the band, takes its place on the record stores that we used to say the past, or for the younger ones, its place in the “order and pay now” of the websites, trying to claim things.
The only thing that is certain is that this project has little to do with what the two great musicians do with Nightwish and Pagan’s Mind. Northward is a totally fresh project (even if it was “in the refrigerator” for a long time) full of ideas and very good compositions. The style of the album is based on rock with clear trends towards hard rock, pure influences from Skunk Anansie and Foo Fighters as they have admitted, while in the depth there is a Led Zeppelin background. Most of the tracks tagged as aggressive in a totally modern sound, a responsibility of Jacob Hansen (Volbeat etc.). Another feature of the album is the liberation shown by the two musicians, and especially by Floor, from the strict context in which she usually works to meet with the particularly demanding needs of Tuomas compositions.
Another powerful weapon of this album is the air play many of its songs have and especially the first three: “While Love Died”, “Get What You Give”, “Storm In A Glass”, as well as the high-speed “Let Me Out” and the amazing “Time Bomb” just below.
I can’t, and I don’t care to find defects in Northward. There is no reason since from the first listening it gained my appreciation. It’s a release that made me really happy and it will definitely have a place on my playlist in a few days for the best albums of the year.
