OctoberA solitary man looks upwards through the branches of the giant twisted tree for inspiration. The sun struggles to penetrate the grey and swirling clouds. All the customary signs are here of Finnish forests and man’s impotence as nature acts out its own harsh battles. This is OctoberFalls’s fourth full length album. From acoustic ambient beginnings, Mikko Lehto has developed an increasingly atmospheric and at times fierce black metal style. The latest album follows the trend of it predecessor “A Collapse of Faith” (2010).

But “The Plague of a Coming Age” is not just about fiery metal. There’s plenty of that of course. Howling winds blow and the drums signal intent and warfare, but the guitar work strikes up prolonged melancholic majesty. The breadth is manifest on “Bloodlines”, which builds up epically. A piece of rampant atmospheric black metal begins. Growls provide harshness but there is melody and as usual melancholy to go with the persistence of the drumming. This is exciting stuff, slowing down to an acoustic section before cranking up again dramatically. This dark and powerful number is then followed by “The Verge of Oblivion”, which gallops away in black metal style with its thunderous and captivating melody. By contrast “Snakes of the Old World” seems to have a mellow edge but in spite of its superficial calmness we’re soon swept away by this monstrous and epic piece of darkness. Wind can be heard, then there’s an acoustic break, but the dark melodic vibe comes back. We are then taken from the gripping “Snakes of the Old world” to the imperiously majestic title track. After a steady build-up, swathes of sadness exude from the guitar work but it’s still powerfully fiery. Where is it taking us? I could listen this all day. It’s like listening to your life. But as with life, its course changes. After a dark metal passage, unexpectedly a clean vocalist appears and utters a few sweet lines. Seamlessly we return to the growling metal melodiousness. In spite of the harshness it is comforting. The reassuring voice re-appears right on cue. The track’s title is sung with extreme emotion, but this must not take over, so the musical images of the cold and dark landscape return along with the swirling and growling melancholia. The drum patters out a steady pattern. How do you follow this? The only way is with more epic venom, but as ever it’s controlled, melodic and irrepressibly powerful. This is seriously good. Melancholy runs through it. A haunting ballad follows. The power is there but the darkness is elsewhere. The drum then picks up the pace, and there are the sounds of thunder and the ubiquitous wind. The album falls a little flat at this point, failing on “The Weight of the Fallen” to take us anywhere new. As ever the music creates the harsh scene, reinforced by the growls. Relentless darkness contrasts with momentary reflection. This album is like the change of seasons with its variations of mood and colour. The final track “Below the Soils” raises the bar again and captures the mood of the album, returning with fire and the unquenchable melancholy of the earlier tracks. Simultaneously powerful and sad, it finishes on a suitably pensive note.

Without sacrificing values or deviating from the inexorable powerlessness of the human beings who play out this bleak and melancholic scene, October Falls present another epic yet controlled interpretation of their world. So all in all, “The Plague of a Coming Age” is another fine work of atmospheric black metal.

(8 /10 Andrew Doherty)

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