‘Journey to Beyond’ is the debut album of Taival, which saw its release in the early months of the year courtesy of the respected Wolfspell Records. The album is adorned with a cover illustration by Linda Piekäinen, who amongst her portfolio also counts illustrations for Norrhem and Moonlight Sorcery. And the snowclad scenery where the aurora lights up the nightsky paints quite an accurate picture of what to expect: cold and atmospheric Black Metal from Finland.
Within 30 minutes, Taival takes us on a journey marked with a rather gritty guitar sound that harbours both a shade of melancholy, but also of relative glory. By no means an epic sound, the atmosphere is instead one of worship and longing, a portrayal of awe of nature’s splendor. Taival doesn’t lay their melodies thickly on the sound, instead keeping their riffs rather subordinate to the atmosphere. Perhaps the melodic elements surface the most in ’Only Thing that Remains’ or in the closing ‘Päätös’, both songs that displays Taival’s dynamics in pace and impressive vocal frenzy quite well. In a song like ‘Taival’ the music leans into a more Pagan direction, with midtempo thrusting guitarwork and thundering drums. The track ‘Void’ is a different beast completely, opting for a slower and bleaker approach that is more in the vein of Korgonthurus’ ‘Marras’ album. It turns out to be the coldest and most melancholic track of the album, and for me personally the clear highlight of the record.
The melancholy and uniformity of the band’s sound makes ‘Journey to Beyond’ and enjoyable listen from start to finish. That Taival may not be the most original or best new band to surface from the country of the thousand lakes is by no means a discredit to them, but instead another example of the high standard of today’s Finnish Black Metal scene.
