KUOLEMANLAAKSO Release New Single “Surusta meri suolainen” – LISTEN

February 21, 2022 Maxine Frisbee Brutal News, Press Releases Comments Off

New Album, ‘Kuusumu’, Out April 3rd, 2022

Finnish death-doom spearhead Kuolemanlaakso, led by Swallow the Sun vocalist Mikko Kotamäki, have released the third and final single from their upcoming album ‘Kuusumu’. The new song, titled “Surusta meri suolainen”, is out today.

Commenting on the track, the band shares:

“Surusta meri suolainen is based on the Justinian plague breaking out in Europe in 541. There were so many corpses laying around in the streets of Constantinople in 542 that the Byzantine emperor Justinian I asked his subordinates to pile the carcasses on ships, transport them to the open sea and throw them overboard. After a while the waves brought these putrid bodies back to shore as humanary rafts. The title translates to “Sea Salty of Sorrow”, which refers to the tears of those who lost their loved ones.”

Adding, “Musically it’s basically a map of what this band is all about: heavy riffs, rich dynamics, different styles of vocals, and juicy twists and turns.”

‘Kuusumu’ will be released in CD and digital/streaming formats on April 3rd, 2022 via Svart Records, with the vinyl following on July 29th.

Kuolemanlaakso – “Surusta meri suolainen” (Official Lyric Video)

Kuusumu is Kuolemanlaakso’s first album in eight years and their most versatile work to date. In addition to the traditional Kuolemanlaakso heaviness, the album contains fast and bombastic material. The album was co-produced, mixed, mastered, and engineered by the Triptykon and Dark Fortress guitarist V. Santura, with whom the band has worked with on all of their releases. The female vocals were performed by Lotta Ruutiainen from Luna Kills.

Pre-Order ‘Kuusumu’ (Digital/Streaming) Here

Pre-Order ‘Kuusumu’ (CD/LP) Here

Kuusumu’s texts are loosely based on the sudden global cooling that began in 535, leading to a 10-year long winter, loss of crops, famine, and mass deaths of cattle and other animals. The climate change was most likely caused by massive volcanic eruptions, the fog of which darkened the sun for 1,5 years, causing loss of light and intolerable coldness. Moreover, the bubonic plague that began in the Byzantine Empire in 541 swept across Europe, killing tens of millions of people during the climate crisis.

“I see our previous releases as autumn albums, so this time we decided to make a winter album. I came across some literature about the catastrophic events by chance, and got immensely inspired by them – especially the contemporary writings of the 530–540 era. It didn’t take long for me to write the album after that. It’s spine-chilling to ponder that a deadly climate change and a pandemic raged also 1,500 years ago when medical knowledge, information flow, and living conditions were in their infancy. And there was no electricity, of course. People thought that they have angered the gods and the darkness will last forever,” says Laakso.