There are unique flavors that the worlds of death and doom metal are able to bring out independently, and obviously, that can be said about every single genre on the planet. But whenever death and doom come together it creates an ideal soundscape for naught but true sorrow to breed and become the dominant presence. It’s something that an innumerable amount of bands have tried their hands at but few can make it feel like true art. Vanha definitely demonstrated such with their debut, but it’s with this upcoming effort this band becomes something truly worthy of widespread attention throughout the style’s community.

It was with Vanha’s debut that we received a brand of death/doom that we’ve all seen aspects of before from the material being absolutely drenched in melancholy, the rhythms being spaced out quite nicely while, naturally, exceedingly heavy, and being something that was very promising as a debut. Yet, it just missed the mark for me as being something really interesting, but I knew that this Swedish act could easily recover if given the chance. Not three years later, “Melancholia” shows us that Vanha has become just that as these six tracks are some of the most solemn and introspective death/doom I’ve heard all year. We’re granted tantalizing heaviness that’s very familiar for anyone who’s into Swedish doom, and Vanha does nothing but just for the deeply emotional side of the style that I feel doesn’t get represented enough. Every moment of “Melancholia” delivers one drawn-out riff after another matched perfectly with the vocals, drums, and overall direction performed phenomenally by a single man this time around which I find exceedingly impressive like always. There’s so much conviction and emotion going into “Melancholia” that Vanha hits perfectly at every turn that this whole record is something that simply must be heard by fans of the style that simply want even more awesomeness from Sweden.

Simply put, you can’t go wrong with Vanha for the second time. “Melancholia” takes itself incredibly seriously as Vanha shows us in every instance the talent and brilliance that we see on full display here, and I’m completely confident in saying that I know Vanha will find a way to surpass themselves come the next record.

“Melancholia” releases on December 30th via Black Lion Records!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “Melancholia” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Vanha on Facebook here.