Vanha - Within the Mists of Sorrow

By Karen A. Mann. Though they've only been together since the summer of 2016, Swedish doom duo Vanha (which is actually Finnish for "old") offer an impressive debut with Within the Mists of Sorrow. Moving at a dirge-like pace, the album envelops the listener with multi-layered sounds, including mournful piano, blackened guitars

By Karen A. Mann


Though they've only been together since the summer of 2016, Swedish doom duo Vanha (which is actually Finnish for "old") offer an impressive debut with Within the Mists of Sorrow. Moving at a dirge-like pace, the album envelops the listener with multi-layered sounds, including mournful piano, blackened guitars, atmospheric sounds and violin. Singing in English, vocalist Jan Johansson, alternates between a clean, forlorn voice (at times whispering to great effect) and an angry growl. The result is funereal and almost oppressively gloomy, but with flashes of clear, melodic beauty shining through.

The album’s opener, “Old Heart Fails,” sets the bleak stage with a sorrowful piano melody that gives way to blackened guitars, crashing cymbals, tolling bells and plenty of lyrics about darkness and loss. From there, be prepared for a slow, dark and depressive journey through six more songs -- with titles like “Into the Cold Light” and “Desolation” -- that evoke longing, sorrow, and a deep sense of impending doom. The occasional violin riff offers the lone bit of musical warmth. The album ends quietly with the piano-and-violin-driven instrumental, “The Curse.”

Overall, Within the Mists of Sorrow evokes a feeling of being left completely alone in a harsh, but astoundingly beautiful landscape, with no resources and no hope of rescue. It’s a noteworthy achievement from such a young band.

Seidr - Ginnungagap

Written by Natalie Zina Walschots. Originally published here by Exclaim.


The word "seidr" (traditionally spelled "seiðr") is an old Norse term for sorcery rooted in a shamanic tradition, often involving spiritual journeys. The word is etymologically related to the Norse word for snare, or binding, meaning that a practitioner of seiðr was yoked to the spirit world.

Considering this, Seidr is a wildly appropriate moniker for the folk-tinged, doom-laden drone band, whose latest record, Ginnungagap, is named after the primordial voice that Norse mythology states existed before the universe was created. A spiritual journey through vast nothingness, pregnant and vibrating with the potential of creation, but still formless and threatening, it's a perfect metaphor for the sound captured on Ginnungagap.

Suffused with a low-level hum, like background radiation, the riffs are slow to build, but when they do they collapse in a fury, like a melting iceberg breaking apart and crashing into the ocean. The record is as eerie as it is heavy, at once ambitious and precise, allowing for huge thoughts about the origin of the universe to sidle next to biting moments of cosmic loneliness. Listening to Ginnungagap, it's easy to feel cosmic isolation and insignificance, and also a kind of superheated wonder.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Abigail - It Is The Night I Fear

Artwork by R from Abigail

Abigail is a long running Romanian band (their first demo is from 1994), who released a new EP last year. It Is The Night I Fear is four tracks of classy, slightly gothic tinged death doom. It is a very song oriented EP, the melodies are memorable, and the transitions from medium tempo doom to the faster, deathier parts are pretty seamless. Keyboards and orchestral arrangements are also well integrated, in fact everything works in service of the songs. It Is The Night I Fear is the forerunner of a new full-length coming next year, I will definitely be checking that out.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]