After having been blown away by Moonsorrow supporting Children Of Bodom (and totally looking forward to seeing them at The Paganfest this weekend) I managed to snap up a couple of their later albums, then this turned up and although the likes of Kivenkantaja and Viides Luku – Hävitetty are damn good, nothing could have prepared me for it.
Firstly let’s get the EP side of things out the way. This is 68 minutes long and has five tracks, the title one coming in at an epic 30 minutes. This is due to the fact it contains two covers and two re-recorded tracks and one has to wonder if it is going to be strictly eligible for any end of years polls (forget rules governing singles charts). It should be a contender as the sweeping statement from me is that this is the best thing I have heard yet in 2008 by a fairly long stretch.
The Finns have here, with the title track alone, proved a massively mature approach in their song-writing, in fact this is damn near breathtaking and although one long song it sits in movements with some passages of spoken word narration (in Finnish so no ideas as to the concept but it sure is no doubt the stuff of legends) breaking these up. ‘Tulimyrsky’ eases you in gently. Acoustic strums, drums booming away low and thunderous in the background, seagulls and chanting then the narration and the sound of the sea. Suddenly this explodes into battle and boy does it take your breath away as it blazes into the Northern sky laying waste to all before it.
I know the heathen battle tag is used to describe this lot but honestly this is pure black metal with a Norwegian feel to it right down to the belched out death grunt. In a word Enslaved is exactly what this reminds me of from their ‘Eld’ period and if like me you loved that album, this is going to blow you away. This is a wholly mesmerising and involving feast. Gracious peaks of grandiose elegance accompany bursts of aggression. Broken up by the fable spoken word narrative, a Jews harp adds what sounds like a Western theme to the second segment. Adding a folk vibe to things and progressively peeling off and fleeing into a psychedelic Hawkwind sounding space ritual at the end. Not that this song has anywhere near ended yet the tale tis’ only halfway through and to get the full story I guess you are just going to have to go out and get it for yourself.
A popular cover, Metallica’s ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ may have been done by everyone from Apocalyptica to After Forever but probably not with such storming passion (and indeed retro sounding keyboards) as this. As for the re-workings they are new to me but sound fantastic. Taistelu Pohjolasta from their Tämä Ikuinen Talvi demo sounds similar perhaps to a heathen Emperor circa Hordanes Land with a splash of Tubular Bells thrown in for good measure. Needless to say after hearing this I have to pick up the entire back catalogue. Finishing off the disc is ‘Back To North’ the second cover and an apt one originally penned by Swedish carnage merchants Merciless.
Last but not least, mention has to go to the excellent Kris Verwimp cover art which completes the cold icy picture so superbly summed up on the discs music. We are no record shop and have no need to try and sell anything that we feature but this truly is an essential purchase if you like majestic, passionate and extreme music in any way shape or form.
http://www.moonsorrow.com
http://www.myspace.com/moonsorrowofficial
