The self-titled debut of Finnish band SARAJAH has been out for a month already. It is FINALLY a doom metal album as doom metal should be: GLOOMY and HEAVY—NOTHING more, NOTHING less!
First of all, kudos for the cover! Sure, AHAB might come to mind, but that’s only because of the nautical theme. The artwork depicts HMS Terror trapped in ice; the ship was on an expedition to navigate the Northwest Passage but ended in disaster, with the crew perishing in the Canadian Arctic islands.
Now, let’s get to the story—THE ONE that future AI-generated albums will NEVER have because they simply won’t be made with stories, just clicks. Alright, I got that out of my system, so let’s move on…
SARAJAH was formed by guitarist Juho Huuskola, who simply wanted to play heavy metal in the style of forefathers BLACK SABBATH, TROUBLE, and SAINT VITUS. Well done, J.H.! In a world of poor standards, you made the right choice.
He also wanted to draw lyrical inspiration from Norse mythology. Sarajah is a sea belonging to the legends of the North… So far, so good!
With singer Magus Corvus and drummer H. Wizzard joining in 2020 (both bandmates in FIMIR), and Jeff Pekkilä coming on board in 2021 to play bass and guitar, the band was finally complete. They entered the studio and wrote their debut.
The end.
What should we keep from that story? Since 2010, when J.H. first envisioned SARAJAH, seven whole years passed before releasing the first demo independently. And seven more years passed before releasing SARAJAH’s debut with the full band. The key word? Determination.
Now, let’s talk about the music.
In a frenzy where everyone promotes themselves as loudly as they like, bands often lose all sense of restraint and measure, while companies go wild in their promotional texts with praises that are sometimes unbearably exhausting. SARAJAH, however, simply identify themselves as Finnish Doom Metal. Is that enough?
MORE than enough, I’d say!
This is Sabbathian doom metal in the vein of great masters like CANDLEMASS, and it’s PURE JOY for all lovers of the epic and traditional genre. You’ll find no psych sounds here, no stoner, no melodeath, no hidden surprises at all. Only riffs -heavy and dark, dramatic and massive- combined with a solidly cemented rhythmic section and a clear, impressively expressive, to-the-point voice!
GREAT job!
I really loved it, and God, how I’ve missed this old-school sound of true doom! Fans of ISOLE, early-SORCERER, SOLITUDE AETURNUS and the like will simply love it…
“Sarajah” was released on July 19th by Argonauta Records, both digitally and on CD.
Check the discussion about the album in our forum pages.
You can order the CD here.
