Band:	Moonsorrow
Album:	Tämä Ikuinen Talvi
Style:	Viking folk metal
Release date:	1999
Guest review by:	SnowSword

01. Taistelu Pohjolasta
02. Vihreällä Valtaistuimella
03. Talvi
04. Luopion Veri
05. Kuun Suru

This album is a re-done version of their demo, when the band had only two members. It is raw, keyboard-heavy blackmetal akin to Tataros or Limbonic Art. The first song is a masterpiece of chimeral song construction that somehow is fresh and well-thought out at the same time, with riffs smashed into each other in seeming chaos yet working to fit the overall mood. Some parts of the album are a little silly, nothing more than the aforementioned bands. No actual clean vocals except in two riffs and background, and the usual sampling of rain, crunching snow, and medieval battles. Some guitar parts are very much derivative of Emperor and Darkthrone-via-Kvist.

Some people remark that this sounds more black metal-ish than any other Moonsorrow, and while that is true, it really misses the point, as Moonsorrow were never black metal anyway. This is simply faster, more chaotic Moonsorrow, as it still contains most of that authentic keyboard backing, those unique folk passages, and the spirited riffing the band has become known for (and none of the Satanism of a typical BM act). The best song on here is undoubtedly "Vihreällä Valtaistuimella," which starts out more Windir-ish but around the one-minute mark moves into a classic riff that reminds me more of Finntroll than of Moonsorrow, and later around the three-minute mark has a really cool new riff complete with Viking scream, courtesy of Ville Sorvali. Another really good song is "Luopion Veri," also clocking it at around nine minutes, which reminds more than any other on the demo of the later Moonsorrow sound. The production here is raw but not all that bad for a demo, easy to listen to but maybe not for extended periods of time. That's ok though, as that's what Suden Uni is for!