Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

Admittedly, I got into Moonsorrow late…and on a whim. While perusing my usual haunts of record stores I spotted the Tulimyrsky EP and said to my girlfriend, “Hmm…this looks very Bathory-esque.” She heartily agreed and, thus, I picked it up and drove the 45-minutes to my home absolutely encompassed by what was coming out of the CD player. I had not heard such majesty since…well, Hammerheart or Twilight of the Gods. A fan was born and a new obsession spawned….

I, of course, familiarized myself with the entire back catalog and was happy and surprised to find not only a systematic line of near-perfection throughout, but a tremendous amount of stylistic amplification void of typicality and recycling. Naturally, I was as happy as a Viking in a mead-drinking contest to be one of a pair of Psaltines to review the latest opus Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa for the site. Actually this album is four long and epic tracks of Viking goodness and three little ‘intermission’ pieces between that more or less set the stage for the impending rushes into glory. When done in this fashion the nuance works wonderfully. The words “epic” are usually tossed around like wooden nickels these days when it comes to this Pagan/Viking/black style, and more often than not the tag is inappropriate at best and criminal at its worst. Moonsorrow relishes its chosen genre and creates an album Quorthon himself might have admired and eventually ‘adopted’ in both sound and technique. “Tähdetön” and “Huuto” (just over 32-minutes combined!) are so much ahead of the game with what these silly manufactured bands of today are attempting (and usually with bad warbling females at the helm) that I can hardly believe this band isn’t more known by fans of the underground black and Pagan scene. The vocals of a raspy black nature do very little to draw comparisons simply because the near-orchestral feel to the music simply doesn’t allow for such frivolities to be attached. In short, the music is a tremendous entity in and of itself and the dynamic of such a prideful offering is easy to be sucked into if you care to be enlightened so deeply.

Instrumentally, what can be said about Moonsorrow that isn’t evident in classics like Verisakeet from ’05 or even the debut from ’01, Suden Uni? Without radically shifting gears with current trends and fads, Moonsorrow resets the demographic and keeps it as genuine and homogeneous as possible, leaving a ratifying temple of attentive followers in its wake. Oh, but if only we could cast out these wastes of space pretending to be so original and ‘true’ in favor of the true masters of the game! By the mid-mark of “Huuto” my blood is racing, my head is swimming and I’m completely submerged in the essence of this brilliant album. Taking the better elements of the black metal style and finding the right placement for said implements makes Varjoina one hell of an album with which to travel, however vicariously, to lands and eras long since passed. When you think of a true piece of music that lifts the entire area in which you currently sit, this is the album that, bar none, not only raises the bar a notch or ten, it levels it without remorse or effort. This is the mark of a phenomenal band!          

Arrangements straight from Valhalla be damned, any other connotation or comparison would simply stink of cliché and rudiment, so suffice it to say that Moonsorrow is band that should be on all lips and in all dark recesses of the mind because, in a nutshell, it’s the best damn thing you might not be hearing. Another classic is added to the line…praise be to Odin!

Release Date: February 21, 2011
Label: Spinefarm Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Tähdetön
2.  Hävitetty
3.  Muinaiset
4.  Nälkä, Väsymys Ja Epätoivo
5.  Huuto
6.  Kuolleille
7.  Kuolleiden Maa

Total playing time:  1:01:09

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*Comments:

Reviewer: Chris

March 16, 2011