Ancient Obscurity - Luonnon loputon laulu

ANCIENT OBSCURITY - Luonnon loputon laulu (WOLFSPELL Records CD 2016)

Wolfspell Records once again made some research in the Finnish woods and once again found there an obscure project that they wanted to release on CD. This is how Ancient Obscurity found its way to my home and I can now listen to their EP “Luonnon loputon laulu”. No, sorry… it’s his EP, as Ancient Obscurity is basically just one kid, Valtteri, who’s running this project alone, although for this EP he was handed a help from Eetu Nykänen (they’re both also in a band called Visuri). Well, kid or not, I have to say he has a good sense for black metal and surely managed to compose some really good songs for this CD.

It all starts with “Avaus” and I have to say that I really like this short acoustic piece. And then we have five songs of “forest black metal”, as I sometimes like to call it. It honestly takes some time to get used to the sound of “Luonnon loputon laulu”, because the guitar tone is weird, to say it at least. It has weird distortion, quite unusual and bassy. No idea, where’s the trick, but it surely gave Ancient Obscurity something original. Stylistically on one hand it all has a strong Finnish vibe – in the vein of some early Horna, Azaghal or Goatmoon (whose song has been covered here, by the way). On the other hand it has a slight Eastern European touch, speaking of the harsh production and aura of the music. Well, who cares. The music is rather solid and enjoyable. As I said before, Valtteri has a good sense for black metal, I really like some of the arrangements and ideas he had for these songs, like in the title track, which surely is the best from the whole CD. These kind of howled vocals along melancholic bass guitar lines sounds damn great, in my opinion. You’ll hear a similar pattern also in “Tähdet ya kuu” and again it sounds incredibly good. Great atmosphere! On other songs, like “Lehdon levosa” the music is rawer, more aggressive, sometimes faster, with almost punkish simplicity, dirt and kind of messy character… but it also sounds not bad at all and in the end I have to say that this EP gave me a very good experience and I like it.

This CD is limited to 250 copies, get a copy then, I do recommend Ancient Obscurity, because it is a solid effort and “Luonnon loputon laulu” deserves attention.

Standout tracks: “Tähdet ya kuu”, “Luonnon loputon laulu”

Final rate: 65/100