Forgjord - Laulu Kuolemasta

Going from strength to strength, FÖRGJORD waste no time and deliver their fifth album a swift year after the last: Laulu kuolemasta. Compared to the organ-led melancholia of the predecessor Ilmestykset, Laulu kuolemasta is a more liberating record aesthetically, the Finns unshackling themselves from rules - theirs, black metal's, whatever - whilst keeping the FÖRGJORD identity front and center. No mean feat, that, especially this many years into their canon, but the Finns find ever more ways to twist and turn their always-beguiling/bewitching sound, and Laulu kuolemasta by turns explores territories both gloomier and more rockin', if you will, with an acute mysticism coating the 46-minute work like a lingering fog. Of course, each of these eight songs (and two haunting interludes) exudes a deceptive(ly nasty) catchiness, and even without knowing their native language, you'll find yourself soon singing these mini-anthems.