ALBUM REVIEW: Unissa Palaneet – Radien
At this point, we are pretty certain that every person in Finland is in a metal band. Whether it’s part of the school syllabus or just imbued in the blood of the people, they have a remarkable knack for producing high-tier metal across all different disciplines, whether it’s the melodic death metal of CHILDREN OF BODOM or the gothic rock of HIM. Add to that stack RADIEN who play a blackened sludge that dominates the senses and suffocates any and all light in the vicinity.
On their sophomore album Unissa Palaneet, the scene is set through the sparse introduction Myrskyn Silmä, a near six-minute stint of drone-led atmospherics that is perfectly comfortable doing not very much at all. With brushed cymbals fading in and out under a simple strummed acoustic guitar and an ethereal higher-pitched melody, the build is painstakingly gradual, before pounding drum beats are littered hither and thither. As it’s all stripped back away, that drum remains like the heartbeat of somebody stuck in a dark and desolate place, with nothing around them.
The album is actually about a central character who finds that calm spot inside themselves amidst total chaos, where they witness dreams and visions of the end of humanity, which turn out to be prophecies of the future. Sure enough, the visions are just as diabolical as you’d expect, as illustrated by Seinämän Takana, which uses tortured guitar squeals and a thunderous rhythm section to bury the anguished screams of vocalist Jyri Kuukasjärvi. Those vocals battle through more prominently on Näkijä, like they’re rising through the murk and the mire, or – like the protagonist’s dreams – becoming more solidly real.
The album concludes with the final, multi-layered battle of Unissa Palaneet, pt. I, II, III. Like a three-phase boss fight to finish your favourite game, RADIEN whip through three distinctive and equally impressive movements. Pt. I is one of spirituality, like the ghost of your nemesis rising in a fog-filled graveyard, the intricacies and the textures of it all engrossing you into the encounter. Pt. II leans far heavier into stoner doom territory, with wah pedals and distortion employed to maximum effect; the battle is well underway and your enemy unveils new attacks that you cannot find a way around. Walls of noise and monolithic bass lines rupture the ground around you. Pt. III seems to signal your downfall and ascension to an afterlife. Ethereal voices surround and you’re enveloped in a white wash of light; clean guitars are tremolo picked as you make your way to your final destination before a final outburst of violence seals your fate. Game over.
Unissa Palaneet is a stirring, dramatic and harrowing listen that shows once again that the Finnish population knows a thing or two about balancing heaviness with beautiful atmospherics. Perfectly representative of the bleakness of today’s world, RADIEN have given us a soundtrack for the times and immortalised the dread and disdain that pervades the everyday.
Rating: 8/10
Unissa Palaneet is out now via Svart Records.
Like RADIEN on Facebook.