After a first EP, Iotunn ventures to the album.
Created in 2015, the danish band composed of Bjørn Wind Andersen (drums), Jesper Gräs (guitar), Jens Nicolai Gräs (guitar), Jón Aldará (vocals, Barren Earth, Hamferð, ex-Solbrud) and Eskil Rask (bass, Sunless Dawn) unveils us Access All Worlds, their first album.
Armed of a solid basis made of Progressive/Power Metal, the five musicians add some nordic tones and Death Metal elements, that we can hear since Voyage of the Garganey I, the first song. The epic sound with seizing riffs offers a perfect ground for the vocalist’s howlings, that melt to clean singing during choruses, then heavy tones come back accompanied by catchy harmonics and soaring lead parts. The duality continues on Access All Worlds, a song that confirms those heady nordic tones with haunting riffs, that progressively increase intensity while the vocalist offers its clean voice. The song is long, but captivating, spreading the band’s creativity before the short but strong Laihem’s Golden Pits. Riffs are fast and fierce, while staying in those melodic sonorities, while the vocalist offers the same alternance that before.
Intensity returns into the riffs of Waves Below, a long track that plays on a majestic ambiance and piercing melodies, as well as seizing vocals. The melting of elements gives an effective composition on which we can easily headbang, like the groovy and warlike The Tower of Cosmic Nihility. The song is quite weighing but catchy, and clean vocals add an interesting contrast with the general ambiance, that changes when screams or blast beats enter the game. The soft The Weaver System is next, bringing melancholy and quietness to this epic outcome played by the band. It’s Safe Across the Endless Night, the longest song, that closes the album. Once again, the band offers us an epic and absorbing landscape, then the storm takes shape in front of us, before striking at full force. This explosion of violence lets place to a quite sad part, but also very melodic, before going back to this soaring run until the final.
Iotunn’s universe melts several worlds and influences with an impressive complementarity. Access All Worlds is a seizing album with epic sound, that makes us face dark, melancholic and intense parts, while the drive never decreases.
85/100