Review Summary: The light of day, not for me to find; forever my soul slumbers, while I wander blind.
Utumno are a Swedish death metal band who play ripping traditional swedeath with little progressive flourishes and cool drumming. They released a mini-album in 1993 called "Across the Horizon" that rules. The vocals are very loud and good, and the riffs are strong and powerful. Every now and then, the guitars will do something you don’t expect and that is what makes metal good. The drums are also awesome; the snare pops and cracks like it should and you can hear all the cool little ghost notes because the drummer rips.
There is no actual prog on this record (thank god), but, because the members are good at their instruments, they do these cool little techy things that add dynamics. A lot of underground metal bands didn’t make it big because they mostly sucked, but Utumno are not one of those bands. Tracks like “The Light of Day” and “In Misery I Dwell” are top tier. The lyrics are also awesome. They don’t really talk about gore and killing that much, the subject matter is more about depression and hating yourself and being miserable which are very metal ideas.
If you enjoy Swedish death metal, good drumming, and cool riffs, you will like this album a lot. I give it 4 out of 5 stars for a great performance but it should be longer.
