KINSHIP

Discovering a new band is a little like being handed a key to an unmarked door. You open it, not knowing what lies beyond?anticipating either greatness or disappointment. Iotunn's Kinship is one of those rare moments where what you find is something so expansive and mesmerising, it feels like stepping into a whole new world. Having no prior experience with their debut Access All Worlds, I was unprepared for the sheer 'cosmic' weight this album would deliver. Spoiler alert: Kinship is an absolute beast. Iotunn operates in that rarefied space where melodic death metal, progressive grandeur, and heartfelt storytelling converge. Much like the bands they draw inspiration from, Kinship isn't content to simply pummel or shred?it wants to take you on a journey. And what a journey it is. The album's opening cuts hit you with layers of guitar harmonies and thunderous riffs that pull you into a vast, star-lit expanse. If the ambition of Kinship feels massive, that's because it is. This is music written with a huge aperture, designed to contemplate humanity's place in an incomprehensibly vast universe. The writing is a key selling point here, with every element meticulously crafted to serve the album's grand narrative. The guitars are particularly striking, oscillating between colossal, chugging riffs and sweeping, melodic crescendos that carry a sense of boundless wonder. The leads and solos are emotionally charged, reminding me at times of The Mantle-era Agalloch in their ability to inject melancholy into even the most metallic of moments. But make no mistake?this is melodic death metal through and through, with just enough aggression to keep it grounded in its heavier roots. One of Kinship's greatest strengths is its vocals, which alternate between fiery growls and soaring cleans. The clean vocals deserve special mention for their commanding presence, occasionally evoking the theatrical grandeur of Bruce Dickinson. This is a bold move in a genre that often relegates clean singing to a supporting role, and it pays off spectacularly. The vocal lines are not just a counterpoint to the aggression but an integral part of the storytelling. Paired with the deeply poetic lyrics, they create a tapestry that feels simultaneously intimate and otherworldly. At just under an hour, Kinship avoids the bloat that often plagues progressive-leaning metal albums. The pacing is sharp, with no song overstaying its welcome. The production deserves praise as well, achieving a balance between clarity and rawness that ensures no detail is lost, even during the album's most chaotic moments. If there's any criticism to be made, it's that Kinship wears its influences on its sleeve. You'll hear shades of Opeth, Insomnium, and Dark Tranquility throughout, though Iotunn does enough to make these comparisons feel like homage rather than mimicry. For a newcomer like me, Kinship is a revelation?an album that manages to be epic without pretension, heavy without sacrificing melody, and deeply personal while gazing into the infinite void. If you're in the market for a journey that will leave you both awestruck and introspective, don't sleep on this one. Iotunn has delivered a modern melodic death metal classic.

Here we have the second album from Danish Progressive Death Metal outfit Iotunn, and there is much to take in as musically and lyrically there is a lot going on. 'Kinship' tells the story of a prehistoric tribesman, journeying through life's conditions with themes of unity/disunity, light/dark, body/mind, nature/culture, good/evil, creation/destruction, and human/inhuman. It is difficult to know quite where to start, but opener "Kinship Elegaic", is the longest track on the album and probably contains much of what one might to know about this. First off, singer Jón Aldará is an absolute monster, able to provide death growls or soaring vocals, whatever the music requires. At the back there is Bjørn Wind Andersen who is obviously an octopus, able to keep things going in multiple time signatures while always hitting hard, and bassist Eskil Rask plays between drums and guitar, sometimes providing melodies of his own or locking in tight to provide backup. Then we have the twin guitars of Jesper Gräs and Jens Nicolai Gräs who are happy to riff in slower times, or shred, whatever is required.

Here we have a band who are approaching the music head on from a metal viewpoint, looking to the likes of ICS Vortex for inspiration, yet more death than black, then moving in a different direction which is progressive but far removed from the likes of Threshold or Dream Theater. I found while playing this I kept turning up the volume as this is music which demands to be played loud, even if Aldará is performing in a theatrical fashion which makes one think of Savatage, but heavier and with no keyboards. It is a lengthy album, with the two longest tracks bookending the others and a total playing time of 68 minutes, but it feels much shorter than that as the listener quickly becomes invested and interested in understanding what the band are doing and where the music takes them.

The current line-up came together in 2019, with 'Access All Worlds' being released only two years later, and now they are back with their second. This is a band to keep an eye on, as if they keep on this trajectory, they could well become a major name.

"Kinship" is the second full-length studio album by Danish metal act Iotunn. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in October 2024. It´s the successor to "Access All Worlds" from 2021. There have been no lineup changes since the predecessor. Iotunn formed in Copenhagen in 2015 and released the promising "The Wizard Falls" EP in 2016 and with the release of "Access All Worlds" they started making headlines.

Stylistically the material on "Kinship" is a natural successor to the material featured on "Access All Worlds". Progressive/power metal combined with both death, black, folk, and even doom metal elements, and all delivered in an epic and atmospheric package (it´s one of the better combinations of melodic tinged metal and extreme metal I´ve heard in a while). Lead vocalist Jón Aldará (Barren Earth, Hamferð) performs both epic clean semi-operatic vocals (both low end and high end cleans), death metal growling, and black metal snarling, and as a result the vocal part of the album is quite varied. The material on the 8 tracks, 68:23 minutes long album is both eclectic in style, epic in sound, but also powerful, heavy, and massive. It´s relatively polished, but still with enough rawness to pack a punch when that is needed. Other than the paatos filled and skilled vocal performance, one of the other great assets of "Kinship" is the harmony- and lead guitar work of the two Gräs brothers, Jens and Jesper. The album is loaded with soaring epic leads that´ll have you picture great mountains and beautiful valleys, fantasy castles and dark wizards. The scope of the music is almost cinematic in nature.

"Kinship" features a high quality production job courtesy of prolific Danish producer Jacob Hansen. This is a perfect sound production for this type of music. As mentioned above the sound is relatively polished and you can hear all details clearly in the mix, but there is still bite and rawness enough for this never to become a sterile listening experience. Combined with the intriguing, sophisticated, and powerful songwriting, and the high level musical performances, this results in a high quality sophomore studio album from Iotunn. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).