I only discovered this band a few months ago when I acquired a huge box of Christian metal CDs. Sáwol come to us from Finland, which is no surprise considering that nation has the highest number of metal bands per capital out of all the countries in the entire world.
For some reason I missed out on them, even though their debut was released in 2010 through Bullroser Records, whom I was familiar with. The CD I acquired was actually their 2007 debut, which I enjoyed immensely. However, “Kaiverrettu” comes from their 2019 self-released full-length Past the Gate. The tracks has oodles of atmospheric melancholy. You know, just the sort of music you’d expect from a country that has winter roughly half of the year.
The band plays an interesting form of doom metal that doesn’t fit into any preconceived boxes of what the genre is supposed to sound like. Vocals are of the death/doom variety, but the music features long, melodic passages that seem to draw as much from psychedelic rock as from extreme metal. Lyrics tend to focus on personal struggles, which again, fits the music nicely. The album was released in 2019, so I’m not sure if the band is still active or not. It would be great if these guys could get signed to a label that could help get their high-quality music into the ears of more listeners!
