Mustan Kuun Lapset
Kruunu

The children return with a new effort, and this time we get to hear some of their old and some new, all in the acoustic manner. We hear at Hallowed did review Saatto and Valo the previous procession and light from the band, the former ended brilliantly while Valo was a great album. This one is better though. Kruunu it is called, and I doubt it is a celebration of the Swedish currency. They didn’t really give it a great cover art either, but just the fact that they sing in Finnish should raise interest considering that it alone makes this album different to all that generic metal done in English – add to that the fact that Mustan Kuun Lapset isn’t a generic band, recipe for success?

Well, it is acoustic and who knew that the extreme metal of Mustan Kuun Lapset would fit so well in this format? Probably the band. There are familiar songs, like the amazing highlight Saatto, but also a few unreleased songs that can be considered new. All in all, a very interesting package, a greatly produced package with the best vocal performance the band has haver shown. The playing time is also sensible, and you will note towards the end that not all tracks are in Finnish, but perhaps they should have translated those songs as well, or not, doesn’t really matter. The album is an excellent production.

It is a great album, previously mentioned Saatto from the album with the same title is my highlight. But more tracks are worthy of mentioning, like Ikaros and the title track to name two. They show great diversity and ability with this effort cementing their place as one of the more interesting black metal bands out there. Just the effort to sing in their native Finnish makes them more exciting than most we hear withing that genre. Great stuff. Worth checking out.

To be honest, most metal bands doing acoustic stuff tends to make really sad and dull efforts so this is a refreshing release in that regard. But it is not just great for an acoustic effort, it is good full stop, perhaps not a top ten release of 2021 but Saatto is one of the best tracks released in 2021 that I have heard, that alone makes it worth giving this one a try. The children delivers once more and this effort would be a shame to miss as it is so good, vaikuttava to speak the language of Mustan Kuun Lapset.

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