Year: 2021
Total Time: 1:01:25
Label: Metal Blade
Nowadays, it seems difficult to distinguish from the first just listening that an album can be so multidimensional that, despite its complexity, it is full of immediacy and creates the need for repetitive listening, in a relationship of an “ongoing dependence” between creator and listener. Yes, I must declare, even from the first time listening to “Access All Worlds”, that I feel completely dependent. I dare to write and this way I get directly to the point, that here we are dealing with an album that will be along our way again, somewhere at the end of 2021, sorting out the best releases of the year… I feel like it’s one of these uncomfortable moments where it’s really hard to find the right words to describe something so grandiose, something so impressive, I think we’re dealing with a modern benchmark of the music we listen to and love. And I’m writing all the above with full consciousness.
“Access All Worlds” is therefore the first complete album of the Danish band IOTUNN. The pure and clear mind of the first release is a great advantage, especially in case it is exploited in a correct way. And here it does not take much analysis to understand that we are dealing with that unexpected positive surprise of the first release, which makes the listener get ahead, expect, rank, but above all enjoy a musical sample of pure honesty and authenticity.
IOTUNN introduced us a few years ago with the EP “The Wizard Falls”, a mix of Prog, Power and Thrash (yes, it’s possible!). In “Access All Worlds” there is sound is differentiating, also due to the participation of singer Jón Aldará (Barren Earth, Hamfero) and it is gaining even more diversity and pluralism than before. The basis is now more close to atmospheric Death Metal, with many touches from different sub-genres, such as Progressive, Black and Power Metal (mainly in terms of the epic element of their sound). I can distinguish common elements to Enslaved, Solstafir, Borknagar, Primordial, Amon Amarth but also influences from Opeth, Dark Tranquillity, Insomnium, even Scar Symmetry in their most complex and technical parts.
Throughout the whole album there is a diffuse “cosmic” and “planetary” atmosphere. The atmospheric element is present and dominant, which together with the “Nordic roughness” and aggression of their sound, creates an excellent coupling, directly investing in emotion. Seven songs, of long duration each of them, with wonderful alternations, fantastic rhythmic parts and excellent melodic passages. The vocals, and in particular the pluralism in style (brutal and melodic) add many points, since they separate the band from the pile and give identity to the final result.
Honestly, it’s hard for me to find a flaw in this album. Just amazingly, “Voyage Of The Garganey I”, “Access All Worlds”, “Waves Below”, “The Tower Of Cosmic Nihility”, “The Weaver System” with the rest of the tracks in no way lagging behind. The characteristic of this release is that despite the great diversity, there is at the same time a homogeneity between the songs, so that it sounds solid and compact, being listened as a whole, without any interruption.
“Access All Worlds” is a musical masterpiece of extreme Metal. A planetary musical journey in wonderful sound colours, in other worlds, non-terrestrial, but certainly real. They are the magical worlds of mind and soul that await the right element to unlock. Exactly this element is the new, impressive IOTUNN album. Therefore I have one suggestion to all of you, just devote time and listen to this phenomenal work.
Rating: 8,5/10
Editor: Kostas Kafritsas
Related Link: IOTUNN – Facebook page
