After a highly effective mood-setting instrumental opener that manages to wring some emotion from you, things kick off in truly grand fashion with “Timeless Ones.” This is Grade A Finnish sad doom at its weepy best, done by folks from Rapture and Shape of Despair, so they know exactly what they’re doing. It’s heavy at its core and overflowing with weepy, mournful guitarwork designed to pluck your heartstrings in that “dead puppy in the snow” kind of way. It swings between the works of Tuomos Saukkonen (Black Sun Aeon / Dawn of Solace) and Brave Murder Day Katatonia, with the Rapture influence never completely out of sight. The chorus is spun gold and the whole thing is poignant and captivating. A big part of that is due to the stellar vocals of Ilpo Paasela who excels at both death roars and clean, plaintive singing. I especially love the downtrodden riffage as Paasela somberly intones, “I saw the trail of stars….” The quality sads keep flowing on “Away I Flow” which smacks strongly of Deathwhite in the guitarwork and Dawn of Solace in the vocals, which is a lethal combination imparting powerful magic to the basic doom formula. Another major high point arrives with “All That Blooms (Needs to Die)” which is especially loaded with forlorn trilling and a hefty Fall of the Leafe vibe.
The Wishing Tomb offers so many great examples of gloomy Finn-core, that naming all of them would make my review unwieldy. I must however mention the brilliance of “No Closure” where the Rapture spirit is especially strong and Paasela delivers his best vocal work. The equally impactful “A Mercy Fall” must also be given its due for being so damn catchy despite its downtrodden delivery. There are a few minor stumbles though too. The title track is a good song with plenty of depressive atmosphere, but it’s overlong at over 7 minutes and its dreamy, sleepy drift lacks the punch of the album’s best cuts. The 7-minute closer “The Well of Failures” is much better and has truly monumental moments, but it could stand a bit of judicious trimming. These are very small complaints about an amazing album, however. The 48-plus minute runtime doesn’t feel too vast and the album flows well. It’s a grim joy and one I can’t seem to stop getting lost in.
Rapture alumni Jarno Salomaa and Tomi Ullgrén walk a delicate line between recreating their old band’s sound and doing something new. They excel at melacholic leads and harmonies but don’t forget to bring the metal hammer down regularly with weight doom riffs and heavy chugga-luggery. They’ve crafted some beautiful moments here and every song has at least one that will bring an iron tear to your feeble eyes. Ilpo Paasela was a revelation on the debut and he’s even better here. His clean singing is much like Tuomas Tuominen (ex-Fall of the Leafe, ex-The Man-Eating Trees) and the anonymous singer of Deathwhite, and he sells the material perfectly, sounding heartbroken and inconsolable. His death roars are powerful as well, bringing the full weight of grief to the funerary music. This is a band that knows their chosen genre inside and out and crafts fresh-sounding killers from a well-worn template.
As much as I adore The Will, The Wishing Tomb is clearly the superior work. Counting Hours have the perfect formula and know exactly how to get to the heart of Steel. This will undoubtedly be one of the top albums of 2024 and right now it’s hard to imagine it not ending up in the top spot. I’m happy to be wrong though, because whatever tops this heartbreaking work of staggering genius will be something completely out of this world. Get this in your ears immediately and get sad.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Ardua Music
Websites: countinghours2.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/countinghoursfinland
Releases Worldwide: February 23rd, 2024
