Heavy Blog Is Heavy is currently streaming SAKNA’s lost De Syv Dødssynder full-length. The premiere comes in advance of the record’s official unveiling on Friday, October 31st via Hypaethral Records.
SAKNA, a one-man band shrouded in mystery since its inception in 2006, is a bastion of the post-second wave of black metal ethos, championing a period where the musicality of black metal overtook the antics of its forefathers. Conceived by the late Canadian multi-instrumentalist Solemn, the project espouses a sound that has been dubbed “a natural extension of Windir;” a seamless fusion of epic Sognametal with emotive atmospheric black metal, DSBM, funeral doom, neo-folk, and dark ambient.
After nearly two decades in relative obscurity, Solemn’s brother S. of post-metal band Lunedi has lifted the curtain on his sibling’s genius, unveiling a plethora of songs that lay hidden from the world for years on old hard drives. With several more years dedicated to the recovery, meticulous mixing, and remastering of the music by Greg Dawson at BWC Studios (Thantifaxath, Panzerfaust), De Syv Dødssynder – SAKNA’s masterpiece and sole full-length album – is finally getting a physical release.
Writes Heavy Blog Is Heavy, “… dramatic, meticulously composed, and arranged, blazingly aggressive where it needs to be, De Syv Dødssynder (‘The Seven Deadly Sins’), is everything that’s great about second wave black metal… It has that second wave charm to it, massively dedicated to the spirit of heavy metal but also wildly influenced by other palettes… Windir, Emperor, and more. The folk elements are expertly placed and thought out, much more than tacked on guitars, and the gorgeous organs just bring everything together, highlighting the operatic melodrama of it all. Elsewhere there are sprawling epics well above the ten minutes mark, crushingly beautiful acoustic passages, and more frost-bitten, anguishing screams than you’ll know what to do with…”
Read more and stream SAKNA’s De Syv Dødssynder HERE.
Inspired by Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, Solemn began writing and recording De Syv Dødssynder as its musical adaptation in 2006 at the young age of 14 years old. By the age of 18, he had recorded all of the album’s vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, organs, and drums himself, even leaking an early preview of the single “Del I – Helvete” to YouTube in 2009 which earned SAKNA underground notoriety in black metal circles. His magnum opus drew on such varied influences as Windir, Mournful Congregation, Emperor, Wolves In The Throne Room, Cor Scorpii. and more.
Despite such a promising musical career ahead of him, Solemn tragically took his own life in 2011, halting the hopes of his brilliance reaching the masses. De Syv Dødssynder and its bonus tracks remain his legacy. Like a time capsule, they offer a glimpse into one of the most artistically intricate forgotten gems of black metal’s infamous history.
All music and instruments on De Syv Dødssynder were written and recorded by Solemn, mixed by S. (Lunedi), and mastered by Greg Dawson.
De Syv Dødssynder will be released on October 31st on CD (Ltd. 300) and digitally as well as vinyl in the following color variants:
Inferno 2xLP (Ltd. 100)
Black 2xLP (Ltd. 200)
Find preorders at the Hypaethral webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
De Syv Dødssynder Track Listing:
1. Begynnelse – Sti
2. Del I – Helvete
3. Del II – Skjærsilden
4. Del III – Himmel
5. Evighet
6. Alltid
7. Sóknardalr (Windir Cover)
8. Berceuse Astrale
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