Paara are a band from Finland that plays a very ritualistic and atmospheric form of black metal with elements of folk music and this is a review of their 2026 album "Laulut tulen ja jään" which will be released in october by Dusktone.
A very dark and nature orientated intro starts off the album along with a brief use of clean chants which also mix in some ritualistic style whispers mixed in with some acoustic guitars and percussion before going into a heavier direction. Melodies are also added into some of the guitar riffing and a great portion of the tracks are also very long and epic in length.
When guitar solos and leads are utilized they are also done in a very melodic style while the vocals are mostly grim sounding black metal screams. Clear singing is also utilized at times along with the faster sections of the album also adding in a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats which also gives the recording more of a raw feeling.
Throughout the album you can also hear a good mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with some tracks also adding in a small amount of spoken words, angry shouts and keyboards as well as the songs also adding in a lot of folk music touches and a few songs also add in female vocals. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics are written in Finnish and cover Northern nature and the distant past.
In my opinion Paara are a very great sounding folk influenced black metal band and if you are a fan of t his musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Kirveenkantaja" and "Pohjolan". 8 out of 10.
https://www.facebook.com/paaranmaa
https://www.instagram.com/paaraband/
.jpg)
