Vorna – Sateet Palata Saavat

Label: Lifeforce Records
Releasedate: 27.09.2019

From Tampere, Finland; the land of thousand lakes and a few more thousand metal bands, Vorna‘s latest effort aptly called Sateet Palata Saavat is hailed as one of the best metal albums of 2019 even though it’s just released nearly at the end of the year. The album is recorded solely in Finnish language and the title of the album fits the season which we just entered as it translates literally into “The rains will return”. Just beautiful! The band of 6 conveys this bleak message with grace. They were founded in 2008 and this is their 3rd full length album after the highly-acclaimed Ei Valo Minua Seuraa in Finnish metal circles. So you can tell that the band puts much effort and elaboration into their work, or they take their time releasing albums as they might as well have daytime jobs other than the music business like most of the Nordic & Scandi bands.

As for the genre, mainly because today’s world of genres is as variated as the elements on the periodic table, I can safely say that Sateet Palata Saavat encloses a few genres in itself like melodic black metal with folk and some progressive elements. You can compare them and rightfully so to other Finnish giants such as Insomnium, Swallow The Sun and even Amorphis. I’m sure Vorna won’t mind being listed with the aforementioned groups.

The general mood/atmosphere of the album is melancholic but not in a gloomy-doomy way somehow, the songs revel in their own dark somberness. The album has epical symphonic moments as can be heard on the opening piece “Ylle Kaartuvat” and throughout the following tracks. And right off the bat, you can tell that it’s a Finnish band before even hearing the lyrics on “Toinen”. Moving on to “Sateet” which is a multi-layered track and ended up as my favorite off the album along with the sure shots “Syvyydet”, “Maa Martona Makaa”. “Aalloista” is embellished with clean and scream vocals of Salovaara. As for the sound, prominent keyboards are permeated throughout the album with the help of overwhelmingly pretty melodic guitars and uptempo drums. Never a dull moment in this record.

With the lyrics, Vorna is writing the most beautiful saddest poems in Finnish language that captures the imminent syksy (autumn in Finnish) and foreboding sense of winter. Instead of depressing you, the lack of brightness is celebrated all throughout the album, including the cover art, promotional band photos and of course the depictions of wintery nature and frosted feelings in the melodies and lyrics.

I humbly and highly recommend Sateet Palata Saavat if you’re even a bit interested to see where Finnish metal is today.

• Vesa Salovaara – Vocals
• Arttu Järvisalo – Lead guitar
• Henri Lammintausta – Rhythm guitar
• Niilo Könönen – Bass
• Saku Myyryläinen – Synths
• Mikael Vanninen – Drums

1. Ylle kaartuvat
2. Toinen
3. Syvyydet
4. Sydäntalven Puut
5. Maa Martona Makaa
6. Aalloista
7. Virvatulet
8. Tyhjyys on Tyyni
9. Sateet
10. Kauas

Links:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/VornaOfficial
Bandcamp https://vorna.bandcamp.com/