Tag Archives: folk black metal

Finland’s folk black metallers KOUTA reveal ‘Kaarnaköydet’ album details; watch the visualizer video of ‘Häpeä’!

The Finnish folk black metal act KOUTA comes back with a new album, one year after the big success of the debut ‘Aarnihauta‘.  ‘Kaarnaköydet’ – this is the name of the band’s first full-length – will be released on April 21 and it will be available as CD, streaming, and digital download.

The 7 new songs weave a dark and intricate web of sound that is both familiar and refreshingly new. Folk elements have permeated the new sound much more deeply, while the production has become much more clear, powerful, and straight. At the heart of ‘Kaarnaköydet’ lies a gripping narrative centered around the tragic story of two brothers. Through their music, KOUTA explores the complex and often tumultuous emotions of shame, guilt, and catharsis, inviting the listener to join them on a powerful and emotional journey of aesthetically peripheral discovery.

The new single ‘Häpeä‘ is now available on the main digital platforms as well as a visualizer video on band’s YouTube channel.

‘Häpeä‘ deepens the three-part story that serves as the backbone of the new album. The song was chosen as the first single and the opening song for the band’s gigs due to its unforgiving and unconventional nature. It deepens the story of fratricide by exploring the state of mind of someone who has just killed a loved one.

‘I wanted the song to reflect this brutality and emotion, so musically Häpeä is grim and cold,‘ summarizes Eemeli Haarala.

The drum parts of ‘Kaarnaköydet‘ were recorded in a remote cabin in Lapland. Guitars and bass recorded at Pekka Posio’s studio in Helsinki. Vocals, choirs and all other instruments together with the live recording of “Äitimaan Laulu” recorded at Sonic Pump Studios, Helsinki. Mixed by Pekka Posio and mastered by Svante Forsbäck.

Line-Up:

Antti Mäki – Vocals

Eemeli Haarala – Guitar

Lauri Törmä – Guitar, Clean Vocals

Arttu Pentikäinen – Bass, Clean Vocals

Ville Vitikka – Drums

KOUTA Online:

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Spotify

Bandcamp

The Metallist PR

(review) Goatmoon – ‘What Once Was…Shall Be Again’

Controversial Finnish black metal institution Goatmoon is back with new opus. This one contains eight songs. Why controversial? Because many tie Goatmoon to some not good political themes, but this is not the issue here. The music and atmosphere is. I always admired how Goatmoon under management of one Blackgoat Gravedesecrator who writes music and his friends and session musicians help him at gigs, gets to create such superb melancholy plus aggression atmosphere with such epic guitar melodies coupled with synths and tortured screaming vocals. This is Nordic pure black metal par excellence. I love how Goatmoon progressed from raw black metal roots to more epic black, backed with domicile northern folk synth melodies and inspired by cold and bleak surroundings of the North. My personal favorites on this beautiful record are: ‘Raging With The Lion’s Blood’, ‘What Once Was…’ and ‘Protector Of The North’.

9/10

(review) Kampfar – Til Klovers Takt

A bit older release but it just arrived to my eye and ear and legends deserve a review in this webzine. Kampfar from Norway have been in the scene for almost 30 years now, from 1994 mastermind Dolk and his gang deliver their mixture of Norwegian black metal, pagan metal and folk in long epics and this is their brand new opus containing 6 songs coming just under 45 minutes long. For those who don’t know yet, Kampfar is ancient Norse war cry meaning Odin or Wotan. Lyrics are again in Norwegian titles but sung in English as I could hear at times about heritage, nature, battles, pride and staying true at least it is how I understood them from translating titles. It is fascinating how Kampfar builds up from aggressive blasts of raw heritage of Norse black metal to more gentle acoustic atmospheric melodies and then mid tempo pagan almost ritualistic song parts. Although there are longer songs on almost every Kampfar release, there is not one second they get boring, at the contrary, they are exciting if you open your mind and let the music take you to mountains, north wind on your face and standing proud never letting them grind you down, warrior’s heart is hard to stop. My personal favorites: Urkraft, Flammen Fra Nord, Rekviem.

7,5/10