Album
Type: Full Length
Date
Released: 29/04/2019
Label:
Werewolf
Records
“Reign in Supreme Darkness” is a dark and blossoming crystallization
of all the threat and wonder of “Netherstorm” - a full opera, a syncretic and
well-realized symphony. Recommended without reservation.
“Reign
in Supreme Darkness”
CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Intro – Et In Profundis Mysteriis
2. The Glory of Eternal Night
3. Dark Space Dominion
4. In Streams From Great Mysteries
5. As the Shadows Grow Silent
6. Crowned By Demonstorms
7. Godless Pandemonium
8. Arcane Stargazer
3. Dark Space Dominion
4. In Streams From Great Mysteries
5. As the Shadows Grow Silent
6. Crowned By Demonstorms
7. Godless Pandemonium
8. Arcane Stargazer
The Review:
It
is unfortunate that the words 'opera' and 'symphony' in metal have come to
denote bombast, hyper-ornamentation and bloat. Even the word 'majestic' carries
with it connotations of the overwrought annals of power metal gone cancerous
and overgrown. The juxtaposed subtlety and power of symphonic and operatic
composition perhaps have never found a better mestari than Finland's
Jean Sibelius, whose tone poems and symphonies in particular embody the
capacity for a profound range of dynamics and emotional expressions. As if that
mastery was somehow embedded in the soil of Hämeenlinna and made its sojourn south to Hyvinkää, Ville Pallonen
has proven himself a worthy inheritor, and in “Reign in Supreme Darkness”,
has skillfully conjugated all the fragmentary grammars of “Netherstorm” into a true FInlandia opus.
The
opening fantasia “Et In Profundis
Mysteriis” opera is a dark and brooding conjuration of the dark depths of
glacial striations - a fitting portrait of this land of the icy waters of the Suomi-neito.
The energy built in this introduction moves furiously into “The Glory of Eternal Night”, which
capitalizes on all the blizzard-borne fury of “Netherstorm”, and ushers
in an album of unrelenting hibernal glory. The moods here are cyclothymic and
ubiquitously intense - the raw, bruising entry of “As The Shadows Grow Silent”
brings the pace down slightly only to be reinvigorated in the triumphal “Crowned by Demonstorms”. The closing
track, “Arcane Stargazer”, is
sorrowful and more deeply pensive than its predecessors - a lone trek into the
taiga to commune with constellations and wolves, away from all torchlight and
hearths, a solitary soul against a frost-rimed night sky.
“Reign
in Supreme Darkness” is a dark and blossoming
crystallization of all the threat and wonder of “Netherstorm” - a full
opera, a syncretic and well-realized symphony. The Silence of Järvenpää is
ended thereby - the blood of Väinämöinen rises true and strong here.
Recommended without reservation.
Vaka vanha Väinämöinen
itse tuon sanoiksi virkki:
"Näistäpä toki tulisi
kalanluinen kanteloinen,
kun oisi osoajata,
soiton luisen laatijata."
Kun ei toista tullutkana,
ei ollut osoajata,
soiton luisen laatijata,
vaka vanha Väinämöinen
itse loihe laatijaksi,
tekijäksi teentelihe
"Näistäpä toki tulisi
kalanluinen kanteloinen,
kun oisi osoajata,
soiton luisen laatijata."
Kun ei toista tullutkana,
ei ollut osoajata,
soiton luisen laatijata,
vaka vanha Väinämöinen
itse loihe laatijaksi,
tekijäksi teentelihe
“Reign
In Supreme Darkness” is available HERE
Band info: facebook
