“Once upon a time, there were two brothers, one played bass and the other a guitar. In 2000, these brothers helped create Journey to the End of the Night, Green Carnation’s debut album. From here, they went off to form the mighty In the Woods…, hoping to expand on the sound of yesteryear Green Carnation. After leaving both bands, Green Carnation and In the Woods… remained, drastically morphing their sound and pushing beyond the boundaries of long-winded progressiveness, orchestration, and flowing choirs. Come 2013, the Botteri brothers attempted it again with Strange New Dawn.” Woods, flowers, dawns, oh my!
Svart Records
Harmagedon – Dystopian Dreams Review
“I’ve got to come clean with you folks; there are times when I review bands that have nothing to do with the pedigree of the involved players, or the fervent word-of-mouth presented by the metal music sites at large. No, I tend to grab bands based on their names, or how bizarre the genre combinations appear on screen. Hence, today’s subject, Swedish trio Harmagedon, was described in our promo bin as “melodeath/crust,” and with a mental imagery of In Flames-by-way-of-Morrow soundscape, I was curious as to what that apparent trainwreck could sound like. I mean, who wouldn’t want a lil’ moonshield in their post-apocalyptic emokrusty adventure, right?” Eat your crust!
Virta – Horros Review
“Horros is not a metal album, in spite of Virta’s signing with the weirder-and-weirder Svart Records. What the Finnish trio does well, however, is conjure a tension between pitch-black darkness and ethereal sanguinity, a balance sure to get metalheads drooling. At its heart an electroacoustic album that blends the synthetic and handmade that tastefully paints landscapes with sound, it’s perhaps not surprising that the act was proclaimed a “cornerstone of Finnish experimental music” by members of Finnish media following the release of their sophomore effort Hurmos. How does third full-length and first album in seven years Horros hold up?” The Horros….
Hexvessel – Polar Veil Review
“A few years ago, I proved that you can in fact judge a record by its cover, at least where genre is concerned. When Dear Hollow posted the art for Polar Veil in the staff room, my immediate reaction was that I was too Hexvesselled out to review another. Their weird, whimsical folk-psychedelia is right in my wheelhouse, but by album five, I was starting to feel that they’d run out of ideas. But I couldn’t stop looking at the art, with its great looming figure over a little snowy village.” Snowjob.
Yakuza – Sutra Review
“Yakuza over the course of their 20-plus year career explore through the duality of reverent and incendiary identities how sound too can transform through iteration. Having not yet graced the halls of AMG, and generally living on the outside of the metal limelight, Yakuza‘s hazily hypnotic, startlingly shredded, and warped woodwind take on metal will catch you off guard. Sutra will help you find the light.” C’mon Sutra.
Netherlands – Severance Review
“Netherlands has been kicking, screaming, and blowing out subs with furiously fuzzed twangs for a little over ten years now. Up until receiving this promo for their seventh album, Severance, I had no idea this band existed. Powered primarily by Brooklyn native Timo Ellis, ever busy with various groups (Cibo Matto and Morningwood, to name a couple) ranging from power pop to stoner rock to art rock, Netherlands explores the loudest and proudest of what the multi-instrumentalist has assembled over the years.” No sleep til…Netherlands!
Läjä Äijälä & Albert Witchfinder – Ordeal and Triumph Review
“Läjä Äijälä and Albert Witchfinder are both veterans to the Finnish music scene, the former best known for his time with punk band Terveet Kädet, while the latter is renowned as vocalist/bassist of Reverend Bizarre – although their collaboration has nothing to do with either. Like 2021 debut Centuries of Youth, Ordeal and Triumph offers three tracks and an hour of a polarizing blend of power electronics, industrial, analog noise, dark ambient, and spoken word.” Enter the Ordeal.
No Spill Blood – Eye of Night Review
“Guitars scream metal. We’ve mused around the idea that metal can escape the confines of a typical treble assault with bands like Greber and Twin Lords highlighting fervent and twisted bass melodies as the fright and flight of the program. In aggressive and emotional takes on sludge and hardcore, it works. Other acts like Seum eschew the standard 6-stringer cultivating a hypnotic groove—to a fault, perhaps—to carry their torch down the metal path. No Spill Blood falls closer to this category with their 2015 debut Heavy Electric holding a unique place in the stoner rock (ish) scene for elevating the groovy shred-less platform with fierce layers of synthwork.” Synth spillage.
Sammal – Aika laulaa Review
“Maybe it’s just me but, if I were looking to quote ‘rave reviews’ of a band, I wouldn’t necessarily single out the phrase “Earnest, vibrant music specked with impressive nuance.” Nevertheless, this is the phrase that a promo blurb writer selected from our review of Sammal’s last effort, Suuliekki. Treble Yell, who penned that review in March 2018, had gone on an entirely non-suspicious but very sudden and permanent sabbatical by the time I was press ganged into service later that year. But he clearly enjoyed, without loving, Suuliekki. Since then, Sammal has shed both its keyboard player and bassist. Perhaps you, like me, think that for a band like Sammal, which trades in progressive 70s-inspired neo-folk, both of those positions are fairly critical. Well, these three Finns laugh in your face.” Folk is not afraid of you.
Spiritus Mortis – The Great Seal Review
“In the darkness I lurk, watching from a distance for that first glimpse of what I know must eventually arrive. But how long must I languish in this grim limbo? My hunger grows exponentially as weeks stretch into months without succor. In anguish, I raise my fists to the Heavens and cry out. Where oh where are the great doom albums of 2022? Where are the classic doom-inspired platters designed to crush me ‘neath oceans of despair and mammoth riffs? Aside from the winning debut by Early Moods (God, I hate that name), there’s been little to slake my unhealthy doom desires. Thus I pinned a great deal of miserable hope on the return of Finland’s Spiritus Mortis.” High spirits.