Album Review: Iotunn - Waves Over Copenhell
Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez
Life’s all about capturing those special moments. Weddings. Children’s first steps. THAT magic chorus in your favourite song from a band you’ve waited years to finally see! Precisely why Danish/Faroese metal act Iotunn went into 2023’s Copenhell Festival with the intention of the set being fully recorded. Quite a statement of confidence in your own abilities! The band describe the performance as one ‘etched into the history of the festival’. Another bold statement and one that needs to be backed up! Coming to us via Metal Blade Records, will “Waves Over Copenhell” live up to this hype or will it just be tired old hyperbole? Let’s see.
Now clearly, we’ll lose the visual aspect of this performance. However, listening to the quieter mute introduction to ‘Waves Below’ paints the image of a band taking to the stage in an icy Nordic manner, minus any fancy walk-ons or gimmicks. At just shy of twelve minutes in length, this will deter casual listeners I’m sure. Though those who enjoy a deeper dive and more immersive experience will be satiated here. See, once the ambient synths stop, the silence is shattered with the rich guitar melodies and leads you’d expect from the most epic of power metal. The raw emotion and power of lead vocalist Jon Aldara is captured elegantly here, as he asserts himself with a solid gravelly mid-range growl, as well as soaring baritone style cleans. Though seldom used, his deeper more fierce gutturals are enough for you to stop and take notice.
If the guitars were good in ‘Waves Below’, ‘The Tower Of Cosmic Nihility’ brings epic slab after epic slab of sheer six string based mastery ! If you’re in any doubt, check out THAT riff at the three minute mark…you’ll know exactly what I mean!
It's clear that Iotunn aren’t going to do things by the conventional song writing book. Think of their songs, and this album as a collection of epic movements that ebb and flow gracefully into the next rather than the standard verse-chorus song structures that are rife in the mainstream. A raw expression of unrestricted artistic freedom and creativity…and I’m all for it! Though with such a lose expressive approach to song writing, there runs the risk of the album becoming a random concoction of riffs and passages with no real structure. Though the pacing for “Waves Over Copenhell” is on point! At no point will you feel overwhelmed with the sheer size and gravity of this blistering force of nature. A series of tactically placed slower and more ambient sections allow breathing space for you, the listener, and provide room for ideas to be fully digested. Then when the colossal audial waves come at you, you’re ready to take them on.
How to pin Iotunn down to one genre? Fans of Death from their more progressive death era in “Sound Of Perseverance” will be satiated here, as well as fans of Tyr, Ensiferum, and other folk spiced power metal acts. Then again, why bother trying to enforce genre labels when they’re just going to tear them up anyway, like they do repeatedly?
So, did “Waves Over Copenhell” live up to the hype?
Yes.
Absolutely.
Another Nordic gem uncovered!
