wolfheart-tyhjyysDue to the circumstances, the first time I listened to “Tyhjyys” was a few evenings ago, while travelling through a snow storm on the road to Sofia. Darkness, whitened landscapes on the both sides of the highway, not less beautiful than those in the video for “The Flood”, snowflakes flying against the windshield… Despite the proper conditions, I didn’t feel like fully catching the atmosphere of the album and decided to let it sink in at least until the next day. Well, a few days and a lot of listenings later, I started to realize that things are far more serious and what we have here is one of those albums, which just won’t stop demanding. Without a doubt everything what we would expect from an WOLFHEART record – cold, pedantic, filled with pace changes, beautiful melodies and epic passages, this new release, compared to the band’s previous works, is heavier, darker, harder to swallow and to tame. The technical level seems to be kept pretty much the same as in „Winterborn” (2017) and “Shadow World” (2015), but the complexity of “Tyhjyys” mostly comes from the mood it provokes (and I must say the presence of those low key acoustic guitar parts in the intro, “The Flood”, “The Rift” and “Call Of The Winter” really contributes). From the title in Finnish to the last note of the closing composition, in „Tyhjyys” leaves nothing to chance – it is the sound of the void of the endless northern fields, in which you must dig deep, if you want to understand it. And which will dig back deep in you.

Rating: 9/10