Saturnian Mist
Gnostkoi-Ha-Shaitan

October 2012
Released: 2011, Self-Released
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

After a handful of appearances on various compilation albums and split EPs, and their own ‘Repellings’ EP back in 2009, Saturnian Mist released this debut full-lengther, in their native Finland last year and are now bringing it to a wider audience – which is great news for those who like their black metal at the doomier end of the spectrum.



Seemingly based around the band’s own occult philosophy – as expounded in the lavish packaging which comes with the CD and vinyl versions (your reviewer is working off an mp3 of it) – the Sabbath-esque doomy opening of ‘The Regicide’ quickly draws the listener in and you are very soon entwined in this superb album’s hypnotic branches



Finnish metal always has had an identity separate from that of the its Scandinavian neighbours, and so it is that there is enough originality – especially in the blending of doom and black metal influences with elements of death metal (such as on the second half of ‘Bythos In Quintessence’ or the jagged drive of ‘Temps-des-Cranes’ – to keep you intrigued.

Take the dark, brooding mysticism of ‘Consecration Of The Temple’, for example, which more than effectively evokes the spirit of classic doom acts such as St Vitus, and you have an idea of the ambition of this damn fine addition to the genre.



Review by Mark Ashby