FORGJORD – ruumissaarna pt. 1 – CD

For years one of Finnish black metal’s best-kept secrets, in recent times have FÖRGJORD sprung to prominence among the adventurous as practitioners as a strangely alluring sort of obsidian. Although existing since the mid ’90s and patiently parceling out their recordings in an almost-clandestine manner, the upswing in activity began with FÖRGJORD’s third album (and first with WEREWOLF), Uhripuu, in 2017 and was followed by the equally challenging Ilmestykset in 2019 and the comparatively more rockin’ Laulu kuolemasta a year later. Among those three full-lengths, the Finnish trio solidified and strengthened their strident aesthetic – malodorous melodicism, hypnotically rendered through a ripped-raw soundfield, making their strangely hummable ruminations on triumph & tragedy sound all the more alien, each album unified yet unique within that aesthetic – and made it all seem effortless. And, at last, it seemed that the name FÖRGJORD was no longer a “secret.”

Label : Werewolf Records