Album Art by Mikko Parkkonen / Aarni Visuals
Style: Djent, Alternative Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Spiritbox (earlier), VOLA, Voyager
Country: Finland
Release date: 14 February 2025
Probably one of the most frustrating things in general for musical critique is when there is overt obsession with comparing bands singularly to whatever band does their genre best or is the current flavor of the day/week/year. While helpful for establishing a baseline, it often can be a bit reductive in totality, as a summation of a separate piece of work to be “of another” in some aspect. With this in mind, most of us here try to do exactly that: establish baselines of what something will initially feel like without leaning too much on comparisons to known quantities to give a judgment on a body of work. So with that all out of the way, let’s get this out of the way: Rioghan is a female-led djenty alternative metal project, and as such the Spiritbox comparisons are immediate from the outset (It was even on our internal submission spreadsheet. It is inescapable!).
On latest album Kept, the Finnish outfit compose their sound much in the way many of these newer wave of melody-oriented low tuned alt metal bands do: baseline riffs or djent motifs that pop their head in and out of a song to establish a groove, lush wall-of-sound choruses to evoke a pop or mainstream rock feel (while keeping the low tuned aspect), and intermittent diversions from these in different ways to remind you “yes, we are dynamic and nuanced”. It’s a formula because it does work at a baseline; if you are good enough composers and riff writers, with a sufficiently good vocalist, you are guaranteed to make something catchy and agreeable. So then the question becomes: is this an album to be Kept around for future listens?
“Dreams” opens Kept in a form exactly as mentioned before: orchestration sets the mood before everything drops in on a djent groove riff to get the head nodding. This drops off to a lower dynamic tom-groove verse, introducing vocalist Rioghan Darcy in a slightly breathy intimate tone, before moving to a more fully arranged vocal stack sound in the chorus. “Dreams” continues in a modern verse/chorus/verse song structure before ending with Kept’s first taste of harsh vocals over top of the original groove riff. “Hands” focuses a bit more on this harsh vocal sound, though it does make room, as most of these songs do, for at least a couple lush choruses. From here, the songs continue these patterns, with small diversions into more synth sound focus, particularly on “Edge” and “Distance”, and various degrees of clean/harsh vocal balance.
“Hopes” becomes the first true side street taken on Kept, highlighting its alternative instrumentation with verses led along by drifting accordion and acoustic guitar strumming, before giving way to a violin solo. This song still contains the alternative/pop-esque chorus visits, but the focus on layering orchestration as opposed to a synth+low guitar wall of sound gives a pleasant contrast to the album, and honestly may be its highest point. “Red” is a final taste of the band experimenting with alterations to their formula: earlier releases and bios allude to the fact they act one time collaborated with Leprous vocalist Einar Solberg, and “Red” feels like a potential remnant of that time, its rhythmic guitar motif being reminiscent of tacks from Pitfalls or Aphelion (the best Leprous albums, fight me nerds), with the drumming and bass stabs over this motif teasing that feel as well. Darcy floats over these parts gracefully, and the final payoff from the motif building constantly is satisfying.
The instrumental sounds are all solid and well done, perhaps a bit in the way of being a bit too on-the-nose for the sound and genre to really pique interest—these are all the expected tones and feelings of these instruments for this current subset of alternative metal, so it’s a bit hard to grab at one and say anything about it necessarily except “yes, this sounds good”. The drums pound through the mix in that large boxy way, the guitars are sufficiently huge in the ears and menacing in that clean-cut pop-djent way, and the bass holds down what it needs to, ever so often popping in to say “I’m here too, I promise”. The vocals when clean are well performed, produced, and layered. The harsh vocals leave a bit to be desired, as Darcy’s harsh tone tends to come in a bit thin, high, and pushed, and succeed most when pushed a bit back or layered with singing, or built on themselves with much more scream layers.
Overall, Kept is a decent showing for this well-trodden sound, though it doesn’t do much to separate itself from its peers. This album succeeds most with its choruses, which are genuinely well arranged, catchy, and get stuck in your head immediately. Everything around that serves mostly as connective tissue to those choruses, outside of the diversions mentioned on “Hopes” and “Red”, likely Kept’s most successful moments. If you like the current vibe of alternative low-tuned metal with a leaning for melody and big sound, this will definitely hit your ears well, though it may not change your world.
Recommended tracks: Dreams, Hopes, Red
You may also like: Glass Ocean, Maraton, Valis Ablaze, External
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Inverse Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Rioghan is:
– Rioghan Darcy (vocals)
– Teemu Liekkala (guitar & keys)
– Tero Luukkonen (guitar)
– Antti Varjanne (bass)
– Valtteri Revonkorpi (drums)
0 Comments