How we consume our beloved metal has drastically changed. Literally anything you want to listen to is one click of a button away. Gone are the times of anticipating a physical release of an album like it is the second coming of Christ. Waiting for months upon months, sometimes years, counting the days for that precious piece of vinyl or plastic to make its way to your closest record peddler. Often, if you were absolutely hardcore about obtaining that album on release day, you would stand in line amongst many other devotees to make that coveted purchase. As much as music is far easier to consume in today’s world, I do miss the days of impatientely waiting, and working (e.g. actually leaving the house), for my favourite music to make its way into my more-than-ready fists. The last time I can remember my excitement for a new album reaching a fevered pitch stems all they way back to the two-year gap between Metallica‘s … And Justice For All and The Black Album. I can happily report that I am once again reliving that feeling of yesteryear wiith Danish/Faroese metallers, Iotunn, and their sophomore album entitled Kinship.

If you know you know. If you don’t, you best pay attention (you’ll thank me for it later). Iotunn sprung onto the extreme metal scene back in 2016 with their debut E.P. entitled The Wizard Falls. It was a promising release for such a young band and definitely piqued quite a bit of interest. The band at that time featured current members Bjørn Wind Andersen (drums) and the brotherly guitar team of Jesper Gräs and Jens Nicolai Gräs. This lineup also featured then bassist/vocalist Benjamin Møller Jensen, who would later leave the band prior to the release of their debut album (to be replaced by four-string extraordinairre, Eskil Rask). The Wizard Falls, to my ears, was one of the freshest-sounding progressive metal releases of its time. It competently combined the aesthetics of 90s-era American progressive metal bands with tinges of Bay Area thrash and second wave Norwegian black metal. Møller Jensen was a more than capable vocalist, but after his departure it left the mic open for perhaps one of the greatest vocal talents this world has to offer, Jón Aldará.

Coming by way of Faroese melodic doom/death metal band, Hamferð (whom he still fronts), Jón and the band got to work on their debut full-length album, Access All Worlds. To say that the album was a game-changer is an understatement. Much like their namesake, Iotunn (which means a race of giants in Norse mythology), the album was huge in every imaginable way. At its core, Access All Worlds is an amalgamation of symphonic-inspired aesthetics brought into the worlds of both metal and folk. The brothers, Jesper and Jens, grew up as classically trained guitarists, prior to even picking up an electric guitar. If you listen closely, you can hear this influence on the album, which is rife with sweeping, colossal scores and soundscapes that accompany voluminous, otherworldly riffs and guttural vocals that annihilate with the sheer, unrelenting force of a sun-devouring black hole. Yet, as brutal as things can get, there exists a serene, soul-soothing purity to the music due in large part to Jón’s incredibly lush clean vocal melodies that serve as a counterpoint to the beautiful, flowing elegies that pepper the entirety of the album.

Not unlike its predecessor, Kinship is a massive album arising from the primeval sea. A mythological musical journey of eight songs which span across immense spheres musically and lyrically exploring the deep roots of human nature, its connection and disconnection with everything and everyone, and how our choices have always defined ourselves and the lives lived. Set in primeval time the album unfolds the story of a tribesman who is part of a prehistoric tribe. It weaves a story of life’s manyfold conditions as themes of unity/disunity, light/dark, body/mind, nature/culture, good/evil, creation/destruction and human/inhuman unfurl throughout the album’s sixty-eight minutes. Musically speaking, Kinship builds on the tower of cosmic nihilty that juts into the intergalatic void. It is the natural progression of a band with a clear and concise musical vision, a vision that truly is irreplicable. One would be hard-pressed to find another band that sounds quite like Iotunn (believe me, I have spent many hours in search of just such a band). There is a distinctiveness to their sound that is impossible to pinpoint, as far as specific influences or inspiration.

At its heart, Kinship unfolds itself as a work that is appropriate to the night or evening; a nocturne, if you like. It exudes an expressive, dreamy, and pensive melody, which is on full display in the album’s second single, ‘I Feel The Night’. Its timbre is one that envelops the listener in the murky shadows of twilight whilst lost in contemplation at the starry spectacle twinkling overhead. Jón gives one of his most impressive vocal performances yet, utilizing his clean singing voice throughout the entirety of the song to emphasize the beauty of sound and brilliance of performance over the truly dramatic, slightly romantic, musical expression exuded by his cohorts.

Not unlike the mighty Borknagar, Kinship‘s third track, ‘Twilight’, explores the nuances of progressive black metal to stunning effect. The song shifts from aggressive to serene, both musically and vocally, without ever losing its sense of direction. Jón utilizes some truly vicious blackened snarls that perfectly compliment the unfolding prestissimo/chaos. The song ends with what can only be described as a coda of grandiose proportions, whereby Jón’s incredibly complex, powerful, and emotive inflection are truly allowed to shine over a passage of utter musical brillance concoted by the brothers Gräs. Trust me when I say that once heard, will never be forgotten.

Throughout the album’s remaining six songs, Iotunn succeed in much the same way beautiful pieces of classical music succeeded – the power to invoke both the calm and chaotic, and to truly transport listeners to realms beyond. Like those incredible pieces of music, Kinship seems improbable and nothing short of remarkable that it was ever birthed in the first place. It aches with longing. The cacophony ushers the soul downwards into despair, while the melodies grasp out with hope just as all seems lost. The entirety of the Kinship experience is certainly tear-jerking, in much the same way that standing atop a mountain summit is tear-jerking, yet it is permeated with a spark of hope, even when the music seems to be taking us to the deepest depths of human despair. Mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark (Katatonia, Arch Enemy, Volbeat, Týr), its clarity and organicness allows the music to breathe, providing the listener with an experience that evokes feelings of awe and wonder at the forces bigger than us. The music is as lyrical and moving as it is viciously virtuosic. Kinship is an epic and unforgettable musical journey that is truly irreplicable.