From the dark and cold north of Finland emerges SUOTANA, back again with another album of chilling melodic death metal inspired by the lands that they call home. This time with “Ounas II,” a sequel piece to their very well received 2023 record “Ounas I.” Showing the world that it does not necessarily take a decade to make a part II to your wintry Finnish melodic death metal album (looking at you, WINTERSUN). As always, SUOTANA manages to set themselves apart from the competition with their twinkly melodic soundscapes matched against dark, black metal inspirations. All of their albums have had impressive audio and production quality, and “Ounas II” is no exception, from the clean and ethereal opening instrumental track to their raw and crushing closing track, which is a faithful cover of CHILDREN OF BODOM’s “Hatebreeder.” The album is out August 29th through Reaper Entertainment.
The opening instrumental is called “The Flood (In Memorium),” which succeeds in its goal of setting the mood and tone of the album. It wouldn’t be a SUOTANA album without references to rivers, lakes, flooding, or fish, so the name of this track feels right at home amongst previous albums’ songs like “Ounas River,” “Ounas Lake,” “Troutrace,” and “King Pike.” They’ve got a certain “freshwater nautical” theme that feels both authentic to Finland and oddly specific, I hope they never get rid of this. My only real complaint with “The Flood (In Memorium)” is that it doesn’t smoothly lead into the next track, something that their previous instrumentals have done really well, e.g. “Alku” led into the aforementioned “Troutrace” at the beginning of the “Land of Ending Time” album.
In the next two songs, “Foreverland” and “Winter Visions,” we get reintroduced to the full SUOTANA experience. Catchy riffing melodies, icy twinkling synths, and harsh vocals with a ton of soul to them. Keyboardist Tommi Neitola’s playing really shines in the solo on “Foreverland” and has a nice back-and-forth with the guitar parts. Speaking of guitar playing, “Winter Visions” has one of the cleanest riffs on the whole record and would make for a great live track with its recognizable main melody and very chantable chorus. You can practically hear the circle pit forming right off the mix.
“Twilight Stream” and “The Crowned King of Ancient Forest” are two of the songs that dropped on streaming services prior to the release of “Ounas II,” so we’ve had a good amount of time with them. “The Crowned King of Ancient Forest” has a very different vocal style than the rest of the album, but it works surprisingly well. It’s one of the strongest songs on the album, it starts with a super catchy crunchy riff that just builds up throughout the song in a snowball effect, which really pays off. Conversely, “Twilight Stream” wastes no time going all in and stays consistently epic throughout. This song has really grown on me since its initial release, and it seems like a likely contender to be a fan favorite.
The culminating peak of this album is undoubtedly the huge 10 and a half minute long track “Ounas-1473” featuring the great Zoë Marie Federoff-Šmerda (CATALYST CRIME, ex-CRADLE OF FILTH). For better or worse, they use her vocals quite sparingly, with Zoë only showing up during the bridge. While it would have been nice to hear more of her, this does make her appearance in the song feel more climactic and special when it does happen. Zoë isn’t the only one showing off her vocal talent; however, this song has Tuomo Marttinen belting out some of the gnarliest screams in the SUOTANA discography. “Ounas-1473” has a lot of emotion and melancholy to it, which always works really well in SUOTANA’s music.
Finishing off the album, we’ve got SUOTANA’s cover of the legendary “Hatebreeder” by CHILDREN OF BODOM. Firstly, it needs to be stated how incredible the mix is on this one. This song has a much grittier feel than the rest of the album, which lends itself to the CHILDREN OF BODOM nostalgia, while managing to keep that cleaner modern sound of SUOTANA. It strikes a really nice balance. Tuomo’s vocals also strike that same balance; he still completely sounds like himself while at times allowing his Alexi Laiho vocal inspirations to shine through a bit more strongly. It made me realize just how much he sounds like Alexi naturally. It’s a killer cover that I imagine the CHILDREN OF BODOM Hate Crew will get a real kick out of.
Once again, SUOTANA has shown us how consistent they can be at releasing high quality melodic death metal records with all that melancholic goodness we’ve come to expect from Finnish metal. Fortunately, it won’t be long until we get to hear the new tunes in action. SUOTANA will be embarking on their massive Ounas II Over Europe tour in early September, joined by the mighty WOLFHEART.
Tracklist
- The Flood (In Memorium)
- Foreverland
- Winter Visions
- Twilight Stream
- The Crowned King of Ancient Forest
- 1473 Ounas (Feat. Zoë Marie Federoff-Šmerda)
- Hatebreeder
Lineup
Tuomo Marttinen – Vocals
Ville Rautio – Guitar
Pasi Portaankorva – Guitar
Tommi Neitola – Keyboard
Rauli Alaruikka – Bass
Rauli Juopperi – Drums
Label
Reaper Entertainment
