‘2021’s revelation of the European melodeath scene’ mutters the press blurb that your humble interlocutor was sent with the new album from Finnish metallers Thy Kingdom Will Burn. And whilst I’m sure whoever wrote that is far more qualified to comment on such matters – they’re being paid to do so for a start – try as I might I can’t find any evidence to support their claims on the band’s new album, The Void and The Vengeance…

That’s not to say the record stinks, because it certainly doesn’t. TKWB clearly have a knack for the sort of bleak yet catchy dark metal pioneered by bands like Sentenced all those years ago, and there are more than a few moments when you’ll put down your whittling tool and just be moved to actually sit and listen to what’s going on. But revelatory? Only if this happens to be the first metal album you’ve ever heard, I’m afraid.

Still, epic bombast like closing track Through The Broken Lens is really rather good, with the anthemic lead lines of former To/Die/For axeman Esa Virén giving a hint of Amon Amarth to proceedings as a nice counterpoint to the impassioned, gruff vocal presence vocal of Sami Kujala, whilst Netta Skog adds the bucolic realism of her deft accordion skills – you might remember her from her days in Ensiferum – to Fortress of Solitude to give a nice point of difference, as opposed to more standard fare of opening track Between Two Worlds, which merely seeks to stove the listener’s ears in. In the most metal possible way, of course…

The band do at least try to change things up a little from the standard melodeath blast throughout the album, and they pen enough good riffs to suggest that yes, the future may well hold something revelatory for both them and us – but at the moment this is strictly an album for diehard melodeath acolytes and Finnish metal completists only.

The Void and The Vengeance Releases on May 20th.