10 October, 2011

Immortal Souls: IV: The Requiem For The Art Of Death – new album

ImmortalSouls_IV_TheRequiem

A day on which mercury is expected to climb up to 40 degrees Celsius in Israel (and Palestine, of course) is a good day for some “talvi” or “winter” metal. Such metal is being played by Finland's IMMORTAL SOULS, whose fourth full-length entitled ‘IV: The Requiem For The Art Of Death’ is being released in Europe today, October the 10th, 2011 through Dark Balance Records, and which will be released in the USA and Canada tomorrow, October the 11th, 2011 via Facedown Records. The album was recorded in 2010 at Fantom Studio in Tampere, Finland with Samu Oittinen, while the mixing was handled by Minerva Pappi at Finnvox, Helsinki. Album's lyrical content deals with death and mourning and is dedicated to the band's founders', brothers Aki and Esa Särkioja, father who passed away during the recording of the album. The video for the tune ‘Nuclear Winter’ was directed by Stefano Cerrato.

Founded in 1991 by bassist and vocalist Aki Särkioja and guitarist Esa Särkioja in Kokkola, Finland, IMMORTAL SOULS have experimented with doom metal before fully embracing the cold surroundings, incorporating them into their music:

“I would describe our music as fast paced and highly melodic; like a winter wind at a beautiful frost morning, heavy and aggressive; as fierce as winter can be,” [explains A. Särkioja]

After issuing a few “depressing and oppressive” demos, IMMORTAL SOULS signed a record deal with Finnish label Little Rose Productions and released a split with MORDECAI in 1998 (‘Divine Winter’ EP), which was then followed by their first proper album in 2001 entitled ‘Under The Northern Sky’. Appropriately titled ‘Ice Upon The Night’, released in 2003 via Dutch label Dark Fear and distributed in North America by Facedown Records, was reportedly received less enthusiastically than its predecessor by some European fans due to – of all things - the less wintry cover art on the European release. Not to push their luck any further I suppose, IMMORTAL SOULS' third album, 2007's ‘Wintereich’ (Dark Balance/Facedown Records) was issued with enough snow decorating its cover to calm even the most fanatical of winter enthusiasts.

IMMORTAL SOULS features: Aki Särkioja – vocals and bass, Esa Särkioja – lead guitar, Marko Pekkarinen – rhythm guitar and Juha Kronqvist – drums

IMMORTAL SOULS: Nuclear Winter – courtesy of Facedown Records

 

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