International symphonic/atmospheric black metal act Sojourner first got on my radar with their excellent cover of Summoning’s “South Away” (one of my favorite Summoning songs) back in 2017, but I didn’t check out any albums until their third effort, Premonitions, was covered in these pages back in 2020. Then the single “Perennial” in 2021 was where I got truly hooked and checked out the band’s prior albums, Empires in Ash and The Shadowed Road.
So now, after 3 albums in 4 years, the band waited 6 years after Premonitions to release album number four, switching to Italy’s Avantgarde Music from Napalm Records, and also switching out long-time female singer/guitarist Chloe Bay and Lucia Amelia Emmanueli (female vocals) for a pretty recognized name in former Draconian singer Heike Langhans.
The result, though, is the same: absolutely top notch atmospheric/ symphonic, Gothic, melodic black metal.
I know the above stylistic description is a bit messy, but Sojourner pulls in from a wide array of styles from Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir to Summoning, Theatre of Tragedy, Insomnium, Draconian, and more obscure bands like Dismal Euphony or Duskmourn, just to name a few.
Either way, this is superb, and Mike Lamb (keyboards, guitars) and co. still know their way around a sultry, somber, but epic riff or hook, and with Langhans’ angelic voice adding some gorgeous throes to the proceedings (as Bray and Emmanueli did before her), it’s all just wonderfully emotive, enthralling and captivating.
Just listen to the chord progressions, vocal combo and keyboards of the gorgeous second track, “And the Paintings Fall” and “Lunar Tear” early on, and the absolutely knee-wilting closing standout “The Road Ahead”, which are all pretty heart-melting.
And while many of the choruses and elegant moments do lean a little harder into Gothic/Doom/Beauty and the Beast type moments (i.e. “Occultations”, “Epitaphs”), the band is still capable of delivering small bursts of more sweeping, death/black metal motifs as well to keep things just a little more biting (i.e “Dawnrays”, “Vvarfendell”).
In all, another fantastic release from Sojourner, who should definitely be a bigger player in the world scene and the style moving forward.
