One can?t help but be reminded of Paradise Lost?s Gothic when looking at the artwork for Finnish progressive death metal supergroup Barren Earth?s debut EP, Our Twilight. Even their logo as it?s presented on the cover has an early ?90s Peaceville feel to it, and the script in which the album title as well. The four-song outing fits into the label?s legacy for more reasons than just the superficial, sonically bridging the gap between early Opeth, mid-period Amorphis and Katatonia, but there?s no denying this was meant to look like a Peaceville release, and so it does.

When a record label like Peaceville tells you a band?s sound is ?fusing death metal with progressive rock and folk elements,? your mind is justified in immediately flashing to Opeth as a comparison point. Barren Earth do have some Opethian moments, in their structures perhaps even more than their riffs or style, but as noted above, it?s more than just ?kerfeldt-style playing and singing going on. With Kreator guitarist Sami Yli-Sirni?, Moonsorrow drummer Marko Tarvonen, Swallow the Sun vocalist Mikko Kotam?ki and former Amorphis bassist Olli-Pekka “Oppu” Laine in the lineup, there is bound to be a number of influences on display.

Along with guitarist Janne Perttil? and keyboardist Kasper M?rtenson, Yli-Sirni?, Kotam?ki, Laine and Tarvonen are basically introducing themselves to the international stage throughout the four cuts, starting with ?Our Twilight (El Passion),? and continuing through ?Jewel,? ?The Flame of Serenity? and ?Floodred? along a path cut through melodic Euro death, doom and ?prog.? Perttil? and Yli-Sirni? spell out their parts with riffs that bear repeating, and as with his work in Swallow the Sun, Kotam?ki?s vocals bring a diverse set of possibilities, adding depth to the material at large.

The first half of Our Twilight was recorded this past summer, while the back end was done in 2008, and while there isn?t much of a sonic split to speak of between the front and rear, it?s clear to me that if Barren Earth are going to come together for a full-length ? which one imagines they will when their schedules permit ? there is going to need to be something to change up the songs. This sound works on this release, but if they were to add another 25 minutes of the same style, I?m not sure it would be able to hold my attention listening. As it stands, however, this is a strong EP from a band whose pedigree is undeniable and who will hopefully have a productive future.

Barren Earth on MySpace

Peaceville Records

Tags: Barren Earth, Finland, Peaceville

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.