Return to the enchanted land of Iotunn.
Three years after their acclaimed debut album, 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) continue their adventure with Metal Blade Records for the release of their sophomore album, Kinship.
We begin with Kinship Elegiac, the longest composition in the Danes’ discography, which first hypnotizes us with a few gentle notes accompanied by melancholic clean vocals. Saturation weighs the riffs down while keeping the haunting tones, but we feel that the track is gradually intensifying, reaching different climaxes during blast, then the arrival of powerful growl that unleashes the rhythm, letting it calm down and then flare up again before an overpowering final. A short episode of gentleness leads into the dark Mistland, where melodies intertwine to allow the vocal parts and rhythm section to surge forward at full speed, letting the guitarists take advantage of long instrumental passages before the screams return. Twilight gets off to a rather majestic start, but it’s not long for violence to resurface, creating that catchy jerky approach, while clean and saturated vocals take turns feeding the obvious duality before giving way to the mysterious I Feel the Night. While the first few moments of the track are relatively quiet, the band’s intensity and power is soon on display, particularly during the vocal surges that lead into The Coming End, where hypnotic harmonics are at work, whether within guitars or on bass. The tornado rages on, occasionally giving us a few moments of hesitation before returning to its initial fury, before the band grants us a respite with Iridescent Way, a gentle acoustic ballad in which the vocalist also adopts his most reassuring tones. From the opening moments of Earth to Sky, we immediately feel that the riffs are just waiting to explode, and their release seems so obvious that their strength literally bursts, borrowing even from Black Metal to convey all its savagery, but also from ominous melodies to link the two waves of brutality. The album draws to a close with the long track The Anguished Ethereal, where oppression and slowness march together before being turned upside down by much faster, more violent sections, marking a tortured rhythm perfectly managed by the musicians from start to finish.
Iotunn‘s first album had already made a strong impression, but it’s clear that the band has progressed even further with Kinship. Diverse influences and an unfailing mastery of atmosphere make this album one of the year’s must-haves!
95/100