When I sat down to find something to listen to today, I was really craving some black metal for whatever reason. After hours of searching, I stumbled upon the news that Skyforest had just dropped a new album so I decided to investigate. I hadn’t heard the act before today, but what I’ve heard was all but promising, and what I got with this 22-minute EP was the exact opposite of what I was expecting. Yet, I still can’t get enough of this album.

It was the moment that I saw that very calm cover art that I felt something was going to be different about this piece. I’ve been proven wrong with art like that before with bands like Panopticon showing the visuals don’t always have to match the music perfectly, but with “Harmony” that art is all but perfect. I knew Skyforest was a black metal act from what I’ve heard, but “Harmony” is what happens when someone simply wants to break the mold and try something different for one reason or another. Taking out the metal altogether, Skyforest goes full acoustic folk for these five dreamy tracks that show in full display the evolution of this one-man band. It’s quite the shift from black metal, to say the least, but “Harmony” is no less intoxicating as it’s a record that you can really just sit back and relax to without having a single worry about the world around you. Every moment of this mini-album is brimming with beautiful compositions, immersive guitarwork that pulls you in more and more, and then there’s the whole construction of the album itself having a dream sequence-like quality to it that makes listening to “Harmony” in one go quintessential. Even the incorporation of harsh vocals still find their way into this brand new horizon for Skyforest, and it works so well! I’d expect something like this to come from an album or two of experimentation before finding the right frequency for something as top as this, but “Harmony” has truly blown me away.

Transitioning to a different style can be really weird especially when you’re going from black metal to folk, but few other bands have managed to make that process as graceful or brilliant as Skyforest has with these five tracks. If “Harmony” is anything to go off of or any sort of indication for what we will be hearing in the future, I’m so fucking ready for it and I suggest you be, too.

LISTEN to “Harmony” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Skyforest on Facebook here.