This band may be a little out of place to be reviewed in a metal website but I will do it anyway because it is my understanding that every metalhead knows how to differentiate good music outside of any specific metal genre. Music that tingles your senses in a different way than metal. Music that does not carry the rawness, but the softness instead, and still does not sound offensively commercial to your ears. Music with some touches of distorted guitar but more concentrated in telling the history and creating moods than punching you in the face. The band comes from Oslo, Norway and their name is KALANDRA releasing their third full album A Frame Of Mind.

After hearing the first 2 tunes “I am” and “Untie The Not” a lot of bands came to my mind. The singer Katrine Stenbekk has a sweet voice that reminds me of Eddie Brickell from the NEW BOHEMIANS. The whimsical approach to the vocal performance and delivery of the melodies are captivating, and together with marvelous musical arrangements and very sparse guitars, the band takes you to any world you have in your mind. Another artist that comes to mind is AURORA that also has a capacity to impress with great vocal performance and music arrangements. You can feel a little of her on “Are You Ready?” and especially on “The State Of The World”.

The band has been active since 2013 with a little variation on their formation and has now Jogeir Daae Mæland and Florian Bernhard Döderlein Winter on the guitars. Guitars that you can actually hear better on “Bardaginn” that I believe is a song in Norwegian language and is a beauty to witness. No histrionic guitar solos in the songs and the guitars are incorporated in an unique way sounding almost orchestral. The band is also not afraid of using keyboards, violins, and cellos as part of the arrangement, making me believe that it is a band of multi instrumentalists. In the rhythmic department managed by Oskar Johnsen Rydh, the drums are subtle in the mix but very creative. The drums are not there to dictate the beat, but to add texture in the arrangement as the other instruments.

The album sometimes sounds like a soundtrack of a fantasy movie as you can feel in ‘I Will Get There One Day” with even some middle east touches in the arrangement. The album follows with the peaceful “Hytta” that starts with, as sounded to me, as somebody waking up in the morning in a beautiful place in nature. Having a peaceful breakfast and then taking a bath in a beautiful river or lake on a sunny day. That is the beauty of music. It can be anything you want. You listen to the soundtrack and create the world yourself. KALANDRA goes back to their native language on “Segla” and this is cool. I find the Norwegian language in a song format to be very pleasant for the ears despite not understanding a single word.The album ends with an acoustic guitar and voice in a beautiful tune called “I Remember A Time”. Simple and still with a great melody and backing vocals. An album that is hard to choose the best tune as it takes you by the hand on the first track and kisses you in the last. Nice cover art by the way.