Band:	Sojourner
Album:	Premonitions
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	May 08, 2020
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. The Monolith
02. Eulogy For The Lost
03. The Apocalyptic Theatre
04. Talas
05. Fatal Frame
06. The Deluge
07. Atonement
08. The Event Horizon

Wherever this international sextet have been staying, one thing is certain: it isn't in the realm of clarity.

Snark aside, Sojourner are nowhere near offensively bad, nor do their compositions reek of amateurism; rather, the music on hand is a culmination of black metal's growing popularity and willingness to venture beyond the genre's initial core concepts -- for better or for worse. Featuring a dense, warm atmosphere lush with soothing guitar melodies and enveloping keyboard passages, Premonitions follows in its predecessors footsteps, simply compounding on the previously established formula and stretching it to its creative limits. It's painfully modern or beautifully removed from the confines of the second wave, depending on your perspective, though proponents of either side aren't bound to be impressed by something quite so daunting.

Throughout its nearly hour-long runtime, something that becomes immediately noticeable is its surface-level interest, in that most songs follow a monotonous beginning-middle-end structure filled with all the familiar bells and whistles: piano interlude, chugging support riffs harmonizing with repetitive mid-paced wailing leads, an all-encompassing keyboard backdrop, competing pseudo-operatic female vocals and run-of-the-mill mid-pitched male growls. The drum work is notably energetic and adapts well to the changes in pace and mood, however limited in range they are, but still deserves considerable praise in relation to the rest of the musicianship, as tightly executed as it may be. It's an incredibly user-friendly iceberg design of a release with plenty of demographic-bending appeal near the tip, but it likely won't resonate strongly with any one particular group beneath the surface, with exception to those looking to expand their collection of black metal bands whose incorporation of female vocals borders on significant.

Genre purists will despise this for its representation of the continued denigration of black metal's founding principles, while those merely reaching out to explore the scene's vast and continuously evolving soundscapes will be inundated with an overwhelming amount of generic subject material to latch on to, regardless of its clean and friendly approach. With such emphasis placed on creating this ethereal wall of sound by fusing each track with everything at their disposal, Sojourner miss the mark due to focus, or lack thereof, and in their failed attempt instead build a world likely too massive to enjoy for those on the prowl for readily accessible material despite its accessible packaging.