WELKINS BOREAL
“ASHES”
E.P. Review by Syl Pdll

9/10

Welkins Boreal is a Finnish duo founded by Teemu Kautonen, after a period of inactivity they return to the music scene taking as inspiration their participation in Nattvindens Gråt seeking to recreate this gothic musical atmosphere of the 90’s. As a curious fact, Nattvindens Gråt also included Tuomas Holopainen and Sami Vänskä (Nightwish) and Tapio Wilska (Fintroll, Sethian and Survivors Zero) in their classical formation.

After the release of his debut album “Phantoms of Yesteryear” last year, Teemu Kautonen remains active with a look to the future creating new music that manages to get closer with the new generations, so he joins forces with his old friend Aki. Kopone and enter the recording studio where, through a completely analogous production process, they conceive of “Ashes” a short EP as a preamble to their second studio album that is intended to be released between 2021 and 2022.

The sound of the keyboard recreates that gothic atmosphere in “Are You A Witch?” in which we can appreciate a rather serious voice courtesy of Teemu Kautonen that as the song progresses it becomes more acute without losing that dark and gloomy essence that characterized the gothic metal of the 90’s. I love the solo bass part.

“Triumph Of Steel” is my favorite song on this album because it completely breaks with the sound created by its predecessor, but it does not lose that dark essence and generates that feeling of being inside a church due to the way in which the choral part was developed by part of Teemu Kautonen and Aki Koponen, in addition to appreciating a well-defined bass sound emulated by the drums that contrasts quite well with the guitar chords.

“Ashes” is the homonymous song on this album and the one that recovers the purest essence of gothic rock both in the vocal performance and in the instrumental part, reminding me of other exponents of the genre such as London After Midnight. The chords played by the guitar at the beginning of the song will catch your attention and the lead part of the bass in combination with the drums is wonderful.

If Welkins Boreal’s intention was to evoke the past through their songs, they had succeeded because they recovers the most representative elements of gothic rock: thick voices, a well-defined sound that does not become too slow or too fast with different musical nuances. Ashes is an album that has generated interest in me to follow the work of this finnish duo more closely and that could put forward in a very concrete way what we can expect in their new album that is in process. If you are a lover of gothic rock in its most classical stage, this album will be to your liking.

TRACKLIST

Are You a Witch?
Triumph of Steel
Ashes

https://welkinsboreal.com/

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