Høstsol "Länge leve döden" Cassette members of Manes, Shining, Manii, Mayhem…

Black screwed music cassette with grey print.
3-panel j-card.
Limited to 300 copies.

Black metal project with members of Manes, Shining, Manii, Mayhem…

Høstsol is an international black metal group, consisting of singer Niklas Kvarforth from Sweden, guitarist Cernunnus from Norway, bassist Kalmos from Finland and drummer Rainer Tuomikanto who is also from Finland. The band's debut full length effort L​ä​nge leve dö​den translates to Long Live Death. It includes five songs clocking in at an impressive and appropriate forty-five minutes. The effort has been mastered by renowned Swedish legend Andy LaRocque who has been involved in occult heavy metal pioneers King Diamond for nearly four decades.
The five songs included her all follow a very similar formula. They open with atmospheric, eerie and mysterious instrumental sections that would fit wonderfully onto soundtracks for horror movies, series and video games. These extended ambient sections surround inspired atmospheric black metal songs. The drum play is versatile, not only aiming for speed but rather for rhythm and also employing percussion creatively. The bass guitar is a little bit buried in the production but manages to provide some sinister oomph. The guitar play is overall mid-paced and has a cold and desperate tone as is fitting for the presented genre. The vocals are emotional and performed with much conviction, offering the cherry atop the cake. Pointing out any specific songs wouldn't serve much purpose since the five songs sound rather similar to one another, fluidly transition into one another and form a sum that is greater than its parts. This album is therefore best enjoyed from start to finish without any breaks and the different tunes shouldn't be taken out of their context to be put into some vapid playlists.
The record's only significant problem is that the employed formula is always the same. The five songs recorded here sound exchangeable. Genre fans won't get any negative or positive surprises here. Once the record has ended, atmospheric black metal fans will have been thoroughly entertained but might not be able to recall any song in particular. This listening experience invites for further replays but also points out the rather conservative songwriting that prevents this project from getting further attention.
At the end of the day, Høstsol's L​ä​nge leve dö​den is a very good record for fans of contemporary atmospheric black metal as well as those who appreciate the four versatile musicians and the one great producer involved in the creation of this piece of art. Anyone else can however skip this output entirely without any regrets as there are much more charismatic, influential and unique black metal albums out there.

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