Band:	Counting Hours
Album:	The Wishing Tomb
Style:	Death doom metal, Melodic doom metal
Release date:	February 2024

01. Unsung, Forlorn
02. Timeless Ones
03. Away I Flow
04. All That Blooms (Needs To Die)
05. Starlit / Lifeless
06. The Wishing Tomb
07. No Closure
08. A Mercy Fall
09. This Well Of Failures

Don't count the hours, enter The Wishing Tomb now and become an emotional wreck.

The Finns are true masters in art of extreme metallic melancholia, especially when it comes to death doom; a few renowned acts that reside in Finland include Swallow The Sun, Marianas Rest, and Shape Of Despair, but also amongst them is the promising six-man outfit Counting Hours. Formed back in 2015 by founding guitarist Jarno Salomaa Petrushevski and vocalist Ilpo Paasela, Counting Hours got off to a flying start in 2020 with their highly-esteemed full-length debut The Will, setting high standards to live up to as they now return 4 years later to unleash their sophomore effort The Wishing Tomb.

In trying to match or exceed said standards, experience is something that this band certainly doesn't lack; several members of their line-up have had stints with Shape Of Despair and Rapture. With such pedigree, listeners can expect a high level of musicianship from this latest outing, and that's exactly what The Wishing Tomb offers throughout its 9 powerful emotionally charged tracks. Last year saw a surge of quality in death doom, with acts such as Fires In The Distance, Shores Of Null and On Thorns I Lay releasing some of the finest material the subgenre has offered in recent years; in Counting Hours and their new record, 2024 already has its own strongy contender. From excellent songwriting to highly passionate performances, you'll be succumbed to some of this year's darkest and most sorrowful lyrics, accompanied by highly memorable melodies. 

The album begins in pure Finnish melancholic fashion with the short instrumental "Unsung, Forlorn", as a beautifully constructed acoustic guitar melody and darkly enchanting keys set the album's tone. Following this intro comes "Timeless Ones", a track mostly built on heavy mid-tempo doomy riffs and sweeping melodic leads in the vein of 90s/00s Scandinavian extreme doom, Katatonia and Swallow The Sun in particular. Here, listeners are also introduced to Ilpo Paasela's standout vocal performance, encompassing soft passionate tear-jerking cleans through to harsh beastly growls, whilst also being helped along by several backing vocalists.

For what the album may lack in originality, it certainly makes up for performance-wise, and although this is a musical style that's been replicated for decades, the songs are so excellently written, and the memorable melodies more than make their mark. In terms of consistency, the album rarely, if ever, drops in quality, but there's one song that, for me, stands out above all, and that's "No Closure". This is a definite album highlight, and one of the finest examples of songwriting in modern death doom; the keys and guitars feature some of the most well crafted melodies you'll hear in the genre all year, and you'll even detect a hint of Finnish melodeath legends Insomnium in the riff department, especially in its closing moments.

The Wishing Tomb is an experience of such raw emotion, the listener can go through such mournful sorrow in which you can feel sheer emptiness and hopeless, the same way you feel as if you've lost someone close to you, even making the hardest of metalheads want to well up inside. Yet, there can also be a real sense of hope and refreshment, as if making one's way to the light at the end of the dark, seemingly never-ending, tunnel that is the experience of listening to this album. To put it simple, The Wishing Tomb is truly breathtaking melancholic death doom, just like the Finnish are renowned for.