Has it really been 11 years since Saturnus last surfaced to drop a crushing doom album upon our bare naked toes? Though these perpetually depressed Danes were not part of the Peaceville movement in the early 90s spearheaded by My Dying Bride, Anathema, and Paradise Lost, they were right behind them, effectively covering much the same ground on albums like Paradise Belongs to You and Martyre.1 Talented but unproductive, they managed just three albums between 1997 and 2006 before taking 6 long years to drop 2012s Saturn in Ascension. More than a decade later, I’d written off the prospect of getting another Saturnus opus, but a dim light appeared in the crypt in 2022 and an EP was unexpectedly dropped. Now a year later we get their full attention with fifth album, The Storm Within. With the original bassist and vocalist leading the effort, can Saturnus drag the corpse of their highly emotional brand of gothic doom into the harsh light of modern times? Will it have the same gravitas it once did, or just crumble to dust to be borne away by the uncaring winds?
It turns out the Saturnus sound remains far too massive and monolithic to be affected by air currents. The opening title track shows them still in control of their style and as plodding and haunting as ever. Opening with melancholic piano notes and gentle strumming, it takes its sweet time setting the mood before erupting from the ground with ginormous death roars accompanied by restrained but very effective guitar trilling. Thomas Jensen’s cavernous, inhuman death vocals have lost none of their potency, and yes, he still does those uber-dramatic spoken word pieces too. The pacing is just active enough to keep you locked in and the guitar work is stellar, moving from achingly sad trilling to heavier, backbreaking doom riffs and several spaces in between. At 11-plus minutes, it’s a mammoth piece but it ably demonstrates that the Saturus sound is still effective. Followup “Chasing Ghosts” is also 11-plus minutes and it too goes about its bleak business in an unhurried manner, blending light, airy guitar noodling that could have come from a late-era Anthema platter with Earth-shaking death vocals, heavy My Dying Bride influences and subtle traces of Novembers Doom’s sound. It’s an oddly addictive monster with beautifully despondent guitar work, truly over-the-top death vocals, and WAY overblown enunciation that I just can’t get enough of. It’s like an oversized sadboi slushy with glum drops on top.
This is classic gothic doom conjuring the magic of the Peaceville greats. At times it borders on funeral doom while also dabbling in the ice-cold waters of Finnish melodeath. “The Calling” is a big standout, more upbeat and dare I say, rocking, like Brave Murder Day Katatonia mixed with Tales of the Thousand Lakes era Amorphis and Rapture. It’s a necessary tempo and mood shift after 23 minutes of wallowing in extreme doom and I find myself replaying this one again and again. Those upbeat guitar lines feel like the Sun’s warming rays after a decade in the frozen earth and the way they shift the mood is startling. The album repeats this pattern with drawn-out odes to deep mourning like “Even Tide,” featuring eerie cleans strongly reminiscent of Novembers Doom’s Paul Kuhr, and the brilliantly grim Song o’ the Year candidate “Closing the Circle” giving way to more animated and “light” fare like the very Rapture-esque “Breathe New Life.” The quality levels are kept sky-high and the album has a great ebb and flow. At just under 60 minutes with several songs exceeding the 9-minute mark, The Storm Within could easily feel too overstuffed, but it somehow avoids this fate. It’s definitely a lot of grief to bear, but it goes down easy.
I can’t say enough about the guitar work by Indee Rehal-Sagoo (ex-Eye of Solitude) and Julio Fernandez (Autumnal). Both arrived at Camp Saturnus with impressive doom bona fides and boy do they deliver the fucking goods! Every track is loaded with weepy, exquisitely fragile harmonies anchored by big-league doom riffs. Their stunning work across “Closing the Circle” alone should get them some kind of year-end award. There’s a genuine heartache in their playing that really gets to you. Thomas Jensen’s larger-than-life death croaks and roars are perfect complements to the radiant guitars. He makes long-form cuts like the title track and “Chasing Ghosts” easy to navigate and his delivery is a joy to the doom ear. Mika Filborne’s sparse and restrained piano and keyboard work adds another emotive layer that tingles the spine and he never overdoes it. In short, this is a stunningly accomplished outing by a largely new, untested lineup.
I wasn’t expecting a new Saturnus album, and I certainly wasn’t expecting an album this accomplished. The Storm Within is superior to the very good Saturn in Ascension and on par with Saturnus’ classic material. This is the kind of album one can spend an eternity in, dwelling amongst the gorgeously depressive melodies. In a year of great doom, this is another release that needs to be heard ASAP. Get thee to the storm chaser and get this in your ears and then work through their back catalog. Don’t make me wait a decade for a sequel, you sloth-like bastards!
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: saturnus-official.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/saturnusofficial
Releases Worldwide: June 16th, 2023
