This death metal band from Finland improves with each album. Their last album, "The Tritonus Bell," snagged the number 3 spot in the Top 10 Death Metal albums of 2021 list here. What strikes me about this album is how melodic the guitar playing has grown. It is more of a tribute to classic metal with plenty of riffs that sound like they could have come from a King Diamond album, so that, of course, wins me over. The biggest difference is that the vocals are a more one-dimensional growl, though they are delivered with a great deal of purpose, and the lyrics can still be comprehended through the rasp.
"Daughters of Lingering Pain" is more atmospheric and leans into the doom moods of what they do, with wisely placed keyboards in the background. The seven-and-a-half-minute song finds the riffs wandering around as they take you on a more melancholy journey at first before things gain momentum. The drummer serves as an excellent conductor for the twists and turns that unfold on this song. It did take a couple of listens to fully digest what was going on.
"Lugubrious Dance" is more aggressive from the onset, like a more depressive version of Entombed, then things begin to unfold more sonically. Some fist-pumping anthemic riffs come midway into the song. Once again, they lead you into their haunted mansion of riffage, the winding corridors harmonized gallops. The vocals hold a little less purpose on this one, but the guitars are such a dominant factor that you would never notice. I was halfway into "Save a Prayer' before I realized it was a Duran Duran cover. This is the album's most unexpected moment. The vocals lack melody, leaving this all in the hands of the guitars. Thus, making the connection difficult to discern, but it works overall.
There is more of a mid-paced Metallica-like chug to the last song. They steer things into a melodic direction with the harmonized guitar parts. Not sure how they would pull this off as a trio live, but that is where they are at with it. As with the bulk of the album, they wander off through a spooly labyrinth of riffs; this time, there is just more thrash influence to them, when not diving into more morose sounds. I will give this one a 9.5, as well. I'm not sure how it will stack up against the genre's increasingly higher level of competition this year, but it serves as a testament to an underrated band that continues to deliver the goods. This drops on October 3rd on Season of Mist.
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