Nattvindens Gråt - Där svanar flyger MLP '95

Nattvindens Gråt - Där svanar flyger cassette mini-album 1995
1) En avlägsen stjärna
2) I tysthetens kalla rike
3) Fjälldalen
4) Där svanar flyger
5) 66,5° N

Depositfiles / Mediafire

The Fennoscandian tour returns to Finland and here's a post somewhat similar to other recent ones in spirit; it's an item I originally didn't think I'd post as rips exist online already, but having ripped it for my own use in early '15 I decided to upload it here as well. In the end Nattvindens Gråt isn't as well known as I thought and especially not their earlier style of... of... uh, let's call it atmospheric Nordic metal? Our good old fallback term "dark metal" fails today as this isn't really that dark. Not at least in my opinion... then again some of the things people do call dark metal aren't so dark at all. Oh leave it already and move on! We could vote on it? No, I'm not setting up a poll for that. Cover scans included and they ended up a bit larger than I meant, sorry!

Right, as you see from the title line there this is a (a horrible term follows brace yourselves) 'cassette mini-album', which is something you don't really encounter that often. I guess it's a bit long to be called an EP and too short for a full album, plus it was never intended to be one. Sound is much, much more refined than on the promo track I posted earlier. Waaaay earlier. Wow, that's almost eight years ago! Then again this was recorded in the well-known Astia Studio and features a full line-up instead of a solitary Teemu like on that promo. Including a certain Tuomas on keyboards. Other familiar names to pop up are Nattfursth of Sorhin who helped with the lyrics (they're in Swedish if you did not notice) and the logo artist whom we know by a different name herein the Coven.

The recording runs for roughly 31 minutes and is divided into four longer "proper" tracks and one slightly shorter instrumental that ends it. The longest of the bunch is the already familiar En avlägsen stjärna (remember, small letters apart from the first for Swedish titles!) which kicks the album off and shares the A-side with I tysthetens kalla rike, a somewhat similar song moodwise. Both are mostly in slower midtempo, with slight variations, feature a plenty of synth (well everything does) and are led by Teemu's croaky main vocals. They have a certain epic feel to them. B-side starter Fjälldalen is slightly different as it feels somewhat more aggressive and also the voice is different here, sounds a bit more forced, barky and violent even. Many traditional heavy metal riffs. I think it's been equally audible all the way through, but here I paid extra attention to the very clearly distinguishable bass. Title track is slower again and more melancholic and features an extremely unprofessional male angel choir which I somehow don't find extremely disruptive today?! I recall cringing and fearing I grind away all the precious enamel in most earlier listens but now it's sort of endearing. I must be growing soft. If we don't count the hit-and-miss nature of the clean vocals I think this might be my second favourite from the songs here. The final song is a synth instrumental and very nice. Winter synth. Ok, so if you like melodic, moody, not-exactly-dark-but-almost... dim? wan? obtuse? metal with that certain northern feeling this might be for you. And listening to the advance tape for the first album now directly after this I must say the music does not change that much between them, main thing must be the vocals which on the album are... let's leave that for another time, I was so close to end this write up, dammit! And I do end here, just try and stop me!