ARKTAU EOS: "Unworeldes"

Arktau Eos' brand new vinyl-only album Unworeldes continues the journey in similar sounds as Ioh-Maera, its sibling released around the same time. So, what you should expect is some extremely dark and brooding ambient combined with the ritualistic, occult aspects these Finnish bands are known for, and for what they'd deserve more recognition than they currently do. But I do realize that this kind of music is of challening nature; it requires careful listening and to be properly delved into.

Now one could ask what makes Unworeldes differ from Ioh-Maera, as in why weren't they released together and why is this only on vinyl. I can't give objective answers to those questions but I do have a gut feeling that this record just happens to fit to the format perfectly. There's something more organic, analog about the sound if compared to the abyssal basses of Ioh-Maera. Don't get me wrong though, this is damn deep as well, just in a little different way. It sounds old and atmospheric, like a vinyl should.

What comes to the individual tracks, well, they're pure splendour. "The Cypress Watcher" keeps it rather quiet for the first minute but then the low frequency bass emerges along with a high-pitch note that always appears in waves. "Coven of the Seven-Winged" crawls up slowly too, but after two minutes there comes some hissing cymbals and an utterly beautiful melody, both sorrowful and mysterious, somewhere in the haze of this soundscape. "Black Leaf Gaze" is probably my favourite with its very dramatic melody pattern. It's like a possessed, low-tuned mellotron playing dirges with some feedback backing it up. Beautiful. "Geometry of Emptiness" closes things with reverberating choral sounds and with the album's first and only percussion pattern.

I find Unworeldes simply enthralling. Somehow the production as well as the faint melodies make it even surpass Ioh-Maera. This one also benefits from the format in that it's a compact four-track whole with two sides of almost equal length, so the coherence is definitely there. What else I'd ask for? I can't think of any downsides here really, but I'm still not going to give full points since there's always room for improvement, I believe. I want to see the day when Arktau Eos top even this album.

4.5 / 5