SINISTHRA (ft. Tomi Joutsen of Amorphis) sign record deal with ROCKSHOTS RECORDS
Finland’s Sinisthra have signed with Italian label Rockshots Records for the release of their album, “The Broad and Beaten Way”. Best described as sadness tinged with despair and hope, the new album encapsulates raw emotion set against heavy and brooding music.
This album comes 15 years after the debut record “Last of the Stories of Long Past Glories”, and its manifestation has been a slow and arduous process. The songs were written ages ago while other projects, primarily vocalist Tomi Joutsen’s presence in Amorphis, were given priority from the band members.
Guitarist Markku Mäkinen writes the majority of the music for the highly elusive band whose original and complex sound has often been mislabeled. The band explains the evolution of their music:
“We all had a history in thrash and death metal bands, but when the band originally came together in 2000, there was not much metal at all in the sound, it was leaning more towards grunge and at times trip-hop. After the first album in 2005, the sound took a lot more metallic turn and something came in from 70’s prog as well. Metal genres are irrelevant to us.”
The name for the album comes from “Paradise Lost” by John Milton; “The Broad and Beaten Way” is a bridge from Hell to Earth with the lyrics taking inspiration from the fall of man and from leading a chaotic and self-destructive modern day life and trying to find solid ground and perhaps even some peace of mind.
“Eterne” is the first song, where the metaphorical Adam and Eve are expelled, both from Eden and from their union, and in the last song “Ephemeral” Adam, solitary, finally accepts his past actions as futile.
The melancholic sojourn, suitable for fans of Katatonia, Anathema, and Amorphis will be available in May 2020.
The debut record “Last of the Stories of Long Past Glories” is available now on digital platforms:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/38Tn0rS
iTunes: https://apple.co/2WgV1zK
YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/Sinisthra
"Last of the Stories of Long Past Glories" Track Listing:
1. Coming Up Roses
2. Ice Cube Sun
3. Fearless Under The Falling Sky
4. To The One Far Away
5. Unrevealed
6. My Sweet Nothing
7. Fucking Fragile
8. Innocence…In A Sense
9. Completely Incomplete
What? Who? Why?
With the sun behind their backs and welcoming smiles on their faces, Sinisthra beckon you to come closer and listen for awhile. Yes it’s metal and yes it’s from Finland but it’s not as simple as that. The sound has been in existence from the year 2000, always quite heavy and always quite melancholic, and often with strong shades of 70’s prog with lesser shades of 90’s grunge. The band released one album on 2005, called “Last Of The Stories Of Long Past Glories” to favourable reviews and got labelled “gothic metal”, somewhat misleadingly, but as the singer Tomi Joutsen joined Amorphis, his career skyrocketed and Sinisthra’s didn’t, so due to lack of time from his part, things slowed down. A lot. And then a lot more. But slowing down isn’t the same as stopping completely, and as 2020 dawns, things stir in their cobwebbed spaces.