Ruttokosmos - Apoteoosi

RUTTOKOSMOS were one of the great "what if?"s of Finnish black metal. The band formed sometime in 2003 and released the five-song Ja minä näin kuoleman demo in 2006 and then the six-song Kärsimys demo a year later. Afterward, nothing was heard from RUTTOKOSMOS ever again. Only one member concurrently played in Divina Inferis, and the other two members either disappeared or played pseudonymously in other bands. In 2021, WEREWOLF compiled both demos onto one massive compilation, (re)introducing RUTTOKOSMOS to a newer generation starved for authentic mysticism in black metal, with the cryptic suggestion that a debut album may someday or decade arrive. - At LONG last, that day has indeed arrived with Apoteoosi. With the lineup still very much a mystery, RUTTOKOSMOS nonetheless here make time stand still - in more ways than one. Comprising five tracks across 46 minutes, Apoteoosi largely continues on from where Kärsimys left off - on first blush, the now-quite-entrenched "depressive suicidal black metal" idiom - but where RUTTOKOSMOS in the past differentiated themselves with an exquisitely anguished sound that fused slow-motion blizzard riffs with an utterly grim melodicism, it's that latter aspect that truly takes flight on Apoteoosi. - Still unapologetically raw and grim as fuck, the melodies coursing through these cold veins shed the most beautiful tears, almost folkloric were they not in slow motion; given the generous song lengths, one can easily imagine such melodies cycling into velvet-black infinity. Still, RUTTOKOSMOS are not averse to picking up the (raw, grim-as-fuck) pace, with that melodicism working an equally hypnotic spell no matter the tempo. Perhaps most importantly, Apoteoosi emits a genuinely nostalgic atmosphere too long missing in black metal during the fake-raw / Bandcamp era: no light, no hope, no NOTHING that has happened during the past 17-some years. "What if?" has now become "what is," or maybe cryptically "what was"...