8 years since their last album and 6 since ‘The Gothic Tapes’, this shall be their third album. It’s also a concept album with the subject matter being the 10-year winter that started in 535, including the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe during that period. No I’m sadly not getting that from the lyrical content as my Finnish is non-existent, so I am going by the promo notes. The Kuolemanlaakso line up consists of Kotamäki (vocals), Laakso (guitar, backing vocals), Kouta (guitar), Usva (bass), Tiera (drums) with guests Lotta Ruutiainen on vocals, Aleksi Munter playing keyboards and additional lead guitar and percussion by V. Santura.
The opener “Pimeys Laski” begins with a haunting piano piece being played in the rain before a string section joins in for added ambience, but it’s when the heavy, gloomy guitar strumming accompanied by the beautiful clean vocals that the emotion in the song becomes palpable. However, when those clean vocals turn into growls and rasps to go with the slightly faster drumming, the song takes on a different tone completely.
Lotta’s female vocals fit perfectly with the doomy bass riff and chunky guitars on the choruses of “Katkeruuden Malja”, while Kotamäki’s growls blend in really well for the slower verses with their constant drum rolls.
Predominantly slow and doomy, but with a heavy and reasonably fast drum groove “Surusta Meri Suolainen” heads into thrash territory towards the end of the song where the growls and operatic choral vocal float above the chugging guitars and drums.
A long roar takes us into “Kuohuista Tulisten Koskien” as the groove is made more melodic by the keyboards and one of the few lead guitar breaks on the album.
The gentle “Surun Sinfonia” is the longest song on the album, where the spoken lyrics accompanied by the guitars and lightly tapped drums are eventually replaced by slow growls with the music unchanged, bar the increased pace of the kick drum, to profound effect.
“Pedon Vaisto” is by far the most vivacious song on the album, in fact it could almost be allegro if not for the subdued movements with black metal rasps and a ghostly choir in the background.
The symphonic elements of “Tulessakävelijä” bolster the heavier guitars and doom-death feel of the song, to make it feel even grander and filled with additional layers that could be ignored otherwise.
An incredibly beautiful album to be enjoyed all the more on a miserable winter’s day on this wet isle.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
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