Primary Emotions/Themes: The glory and the harshness of nature, the cold of winter
Thoughts: A cabin at the end of a worn road in the middle of winter. Barren trees and a grey sky.
Dark tones feedbacking over each other. A banjo playing singular notes. Dark soundscapes feeding into one another.
These are the visual and audio impressions that the listener gets while looking at the cover of the album and listening to the opener, Lumi. It's a disconcerting feeling to say the least. Things look somewhat normal, but the sound that is coming through my speakers is telling me that something is quite wrong with this picture.
As the album continues the darkness that is heard in the first track continues. Otava is all acoustic with some distant chanting. Menneet starts off quiet, but turns in to a distorted mess by the end of its nine minute run time. The album is full of music that is concerning to the ear, and this is the appeal.
Dark folk is such a fascinating genre to me. It encompasses so many things and so many emotions. Tervahäät have gone above and beyond with the two albums that I own from them. They explore emotions and ideals that I have not seen in the genre before... things that are typically reserved for metal or other more extreme genres.
The band has managed tap into emotions that are usually reserved for black metal. Fleeting hope, loss of self, despair... all these things are harnessed using a completely different approach. There are moments where the band does use electric guitars and harsh vocals, but these moments are fleeting and not the focus of the album.
The band's heart is the deep and rich sound of acoustic instrumentation mixed with dark ambient soundscapes. This combination is what gives the band their edge. It's what lets them harness the darkness in their sound unlike so many other folk projects.
Does it always work? No, there are points where the album falters, but there is enough good here to warrant a full spin of the album every time it hits the table.
Written December 11th 2023
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