
Fortress of Finnish mystery
-- Mustan Kuun Lapset --
17/08/2019
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Black metal |
■ | Gothic Metal |
■ | Dark metal |
Album artists:
■ | Pete Lehtinen | Vocals, guitar, keyboards |
■ | Heikki Piipari | Guitar |
■ | Ville Pelkonen | Bass, vocals |
■ | Kalle Takalo | Drums |
Review written by Glenn “Terra Shredder” Van Bockstaele.
Mustan Kuun Lapset is a Finnish black/dark metal band formed in 1993 as
Häiriö before changing their name to Mustan Kuun Lapset (Finnish for Children
Of The Black Moon) in 1995. Since then the band has released multiple albums
and a couple of EPs and now they’ve released their sixth full-length.
Distributed through and directly sent to us by Finnish record label Inverse
Records. Kiitos!
Mustan Kuun Lapset is a band that mostly plays melodic black and gothic
metal with some occasional folk elements (the instrumental fifth track “Soidin”),
acoustic instrumentation (the fourth track “Kohti Valoa”) and symphonic tunes (the
seventh track “Tropaenum”). What makes this band and album unique in my opinion
is the mysterious and engaging atmosphere which oozes throughout this release. The
bass-heavy sound, the shrieking and grunting vocals, the pounding blast beats and
lengthy epic guitar solos along with the many aforementioned acoustic,
symphonic and folk influences. And to top it all off, the whole album (and
Mustan Kuun Lapset’s discography for that matter) is in Finnish. It all adds to
the aforementioned dark, mystical feel, like a chilling winter in the middle of
Finland’s lush nature!
Most of the album’s songs are over 7 minutes in runtime and each song
manages to instantly pull you into the dark magical world of Mustan Kuun Lapset.
Either through fast and melodic black and death metal as in songs like “Nostalgia”
or “Eksyneet” or with gentle folk instruments like violin and acoustic guitar
as in Valo’s title track finale. It all reminds me of bands like Insomnium or Swallow
The Sun. All in all, Mustan Kuun Lapset’s latest release is quite a piece of
art. While their style has evolved from traditional black metal to dark/death/gothic
metal they still maintain some of that classic blackness among the countless
other influences their current sound possesses. Well recommended to fans of
extreme and melodic metal as well as those looking for a true spiritual musical
journey. Here’s the music video for the track “Kothi Valoa.”