THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS

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The Mist From The Mountains are yet another Finnish band that tries to offer atmospheric black metal, with acoustic parts, a varied use of vocals and a certain good taste for melody.
The foundation of the band is recent – it dates back to four years ago – and in 2022 it had already released its debut album “Monumental (The Temple Of Light)” which attracted a fair amount of attention to itself.
Like clockwork, after as many two years The Mist From The Mountains release their second full-length entitled “Portal (The Gathering Of Storm)”, which boasts about twenty minutes more music than the debut.
The musical base is undoubtedly of black metal derivation, although there are few violent and fast parts: the band proves to have personality and is still looking for a definitive stylistic path, but the fixed points have already been identified in this, at the moment , short career.
If we have to think of internal references to the Finnish national scene, we could mention Amorphis and also Moonsorrow for the most epic moments created by this quintet, whose members largely come from other underground bands such as Diablerie and Disciples Of The Void. If, however, we want to go beyond our homeland borders, we can approach in some ways the Borknagar or the Albionic Winterfylleth, especially for that elegant touch that both formations know how to instill in their pieces.
The songs are long, there are many tempo changes, often with real acoustic interludes, but also sudden changes in atmosphere, from rarefied ones to more classically epic ones. The quality of the music is more than good, the harmonies have the gift of transporting us far away in space and time: the magical portal opens and you are engulfed in a whirlwind of emotions, strangely more positive than negative; at the end of the journey your soul will feel refreshed, relaxed but not empty.
“The Seer Of Ages” can be a song taken as an example of what the sound of this Finnish band is today, as it contains all the characteristics described above: a rather traditional Viking metal riff is grafted with elaborate parts of keyboards, guitars and voices which transform its nature, making it become an acoustic arpeggio first and an intimately epic passage at the end. The formula seems to work, but this band is unlikely to satisfy those who demand much more violence and fewer stylistic flourishes from black metal.
From what we can see, however, for the moment the material seems to be there and we can look to the future with confidence.