THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS: Portal - The Gathering of Storms

PRE-ORDER! Release date October 11, 2024. Black disc, gatefold.

Side A:
1. And so Flew the Death Crow 10:17
2. The Seer of the Ages 07:57
3. At the Roots of the Vile 08:39
Side B:
4. Among the Black Waves 10:16
5. In Longing Times 08:54
6. Sáiva 10:28

Total playing time: 56:31

On October 11, 2024 internationally, PRIMITIVE REACTION is proud to present THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS' highly anticipated
second album, Portal - The Gathering of Storms, on CD, gatefold vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
It was but the very beginning of 2022 when THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS released their momentous debut album,
Monumental - The Temple of Twilight, through PRIMITIVE REACTION. The record was presciently titled, too: hailing from the everfertile Finnish scene, THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS were a brand-new formation with a very old heart, with their chilling-yetbreathtaking ruminations harkening to the golden days of melodic, nature-inspired black metal back during the mid '90s. Names
invoked included old Borknagar, Kvist, Old Man's Child, Norway's Gehenna, and even earliest Dimmu Borgir, but on the songwriting
strength across Monumental, these still-young Finns were well on their way to forging an odyssey all their own.
Two years later, THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS return to deliver the next awe-inspiring chapter of that saga. Titled Portal - The
Gathering of Storms, the band's second album is indeed the next part of a trilogy, but whereas the not-inconsiderable debut was
but a mere 38 minutes, this second full-length is an epic near-hour of mesmerizing majesty, its golden rays stretching infinitely
beyond the horizon - laced with black, of course. Truly, Portal's textures are equally summer and autumnal: the warm embrace of
the sun, with the stern suggestion (or at least austere awareness of) the eventual cold, and of course those mossy, turn-to-brown
sensations of fall's inexorable transitions to darker, colder days.
But, that's simply a surface sweep of THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS' ever-growing sonic palette, for thematically, Portal is quite
a different beast. A sea-themed album, the band explore its standing as untamed, dynamic force of nature that cannot be
negotiated with: equally fierce, calm, and beautiful in all its inconsolability. As such, the Finns stretch their songwriting to more
varied lengths; the melancholy and longing typical of Finnish music is fully accounted for, but there's a pronounced emphasis on
immediate(ly hummable) melodies, cleaner vocals, and more engaging downtempos. One could call it more accessible, and that
one would not be totally wrong, but more so does Portal reveal THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS as weavers of utterly cinematic
soundscapes, of magick and wonder taking fuller flight (and hitting waterier depths) that put the band in league with the likes of
Moonsorrow, and Borknagar. But, lest one think that this is a more "mainstream" move, the album is not without its share of
blasting battle-rage, betraying a truly vast canvas that can now only be distinctly THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS.
The sea is a portal to new worlds - and, in mythology, also to the afterlife. THE MIST FROM THE MOUNTAINS once again paint an
absolutely poignant picture with Portal - The Gathering of Storms, and hereby cement their status as Finnish folkloric masters.