Year: 2026
Label: Misantropia Records
Misantropia Records’ demo compilation Satan, Sex And War (review) turned out to be a fortuitious thing. In and of itself, it was a welcome release showcasing a band that remained overlooked throughout its career. Finnish Epäkristus never got around to making an album, so it’s understandable they never gained more acclaim, but at the same time the quality of their material certainly warranted more attention.
But the compilation had some unlikely positive effects as well. Compiling the material saw one thing lead to another, and the results are on this CD: Epäkristus’ comeback. It’s still not an album proper, but at least for now, a mini-CD will suffice.
It’s essentially quite easy to describe Epäkristus’ brand of black metal. Think back, way back into the 90’s and early noughties. Think Scandinavia. You’re on track. There’s absolutely nothing original or innovative to be heard on here; instead, Into Cold Tomorrow is openly a throwback to a bygone era.
So: think ice cold atmospheres. Think sparsely used synths to build atmosphere. Think a guitar tone that weaves a thick fog of buzzing sound, with sharp, piercing leads. Think sinister, dark melodies. Think a venomous, hoarse, phlegm-filled shriek for vocals. All par for the course. If there’s one thing that separates Epäkristus from the era they channel in their music, it’s the tempos. Into Cold Tomorrow consists primarily of mid-tempo material, although there are faster bursts here and there.
Throwing around some references, there’s a bit of Impaled Nazarene’s Suomi Finland Perkele here, primarily the few mid-tempo tracks on the album. The vocals sound as vitriolic and hostile as Mika Luttinen’s on aforementioned classic (which we covered here). A track like New Moon Rising bears some kinship to Carpathian Forest’s debut full-length Shining Black Leather. And yes, perhaps one can catch a whiff of the now-classic Finnish sound as pioneered by Satanic Warmaster and the likes in the atmospheric rawness.
At first sight, the mini-album might seem pointless to those who already own aforementioned compilation, seeing as how it contains one new track and five re-recordings of tracks from the demo compilation. However, these re-interpretations are not only an improvement on the originals, but also different enough to justify their existence. Hence, if you liked the demo compilation, you positively need this in your collection.
The reformed Epäkristus might not be a band to stand out from the crowd with their uniqueness of sound. It might even be justified calling them a bit of dime-a-dozen stylistically. However, the quality speaks for itself. Epäkristus take an older style of black metal, and by crafting something as potent as this, prove just how timeless that era of black metal was.
Only Death Is Real 