Chapter 6.1

Chapter 5.2 - Index - Chapter 6.2

Sixth chapter:
Dark
(2005)

Moonsorrow’s debut album, Suden uni, was liked by many people and earned them a contract with an important label. Voimasta ja kunniasta was a surprise for the public and soon became a reference in the genre, as well as attracted many people’s attention and earned them some new fans. For the third album, the expectation was relatively big, the result fulfilled it and hit the charts in a high position. Now, for the fourth opus, the expectation was high again, for it would be difficult to surpass Kivenkantaja. And again they surprised the public. But must be said

Verisäkeet artwork

that, if I’m not wrong, Verisäkeet was the first album that leaked in the internet before its official release, it actually could be found in p2p networks as soon as December, and this didn’t please the guys at all. Thus, the day of the release, many people with interest in the album knew it already; however, on February 25th it was released and, pre-listened or not, it turned out not to be an attempt to surpass the previous one, but something completely different to anything they had done before. It’s still epic, it still sounds like Moonsorrow and the songs keep getting longer and longer, but all the pomposity and the baroque style of Kivenkantaja were gone, replaced by much darker atmospheres and raw sounds. This time around, the influence of the second wave of black metal (aka Norwegian black metal) was more evident, including some blastbeats (the last had been in “Pakanajuhla”, the fifth song in Suden uni) and atmospheric keyboards, with less protagonism than before; they remind of

The case

Burzum in some moments. No Emperor here, though.

They had Hittavainen as a guest again, who recorded some bagpipe parts for “Karhunkynsi”, but finally they were not used, “because it sounded like a hundred drunken Scots invading our studio and exploding their bagpipes to ruin our majestic march”, said Henri. (If you’re curious, you can check out Arkona’s “Po syroi zemle” and you’ll get an idea of how it would sound... it’s incredible how much both songs resemble each other – and both were released the same year.) Not only the music is dark: the disc’s case is completely made of black opaque plastic, with the logo in golden letters in the front and a small sticker with the songtitles in the back. The booklet is austere, made of matt paper, and, for the first time in several years, it doesn’t have the translations of the lyrics, because they wanted to make it as austere as possible. In Ville’s words, “the booklet was left very simple, it would be too big with the translations. We have no compromises in our concept, it’s a way of showing it… this is what we do, take or leave it”.

Chap, chap

However, they can be found at their website. Besides, one can find a couple of references to the joke/lie: among the thanks, it says “Blabbermouth for the truth”, and the inner side of the inlay, in such a way that it can only be seen if you remove the black plastic, says “Raah raah blääh!” in one side and “Kuolema taidehomoille!” (the first title of the false tracklist) in the other. There was also a change in the promo pictures: they weren’t disguised as warriors in snowy landscapes, but this time they were made at Ville’s father’s basement, and the five of them appeared partly naked, splashing about in a pool of mud. One week after its release, the album was in position 18 of the Finnish charts.

Karhunkynsi

Chapter 5.2 - Index - Chapter 6.2