For nearly twenty years, Hanging Garden have quietly dabbled in the same sort of melodic melancholy as their more well-known counterparts, Katatonia, Insomnium, and Swallow the Sun. I first wandered into their brand of gothic sadboi melodoom with 2021’s Skeleton Lake, thanks to Steel’s glowing writeup. While I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard from them since, what really hooked me was their 2025 EP, The Unending. They really honed their melodic game, particularly with an incredible hook on “Morgan’s Trail,” and I was hopeful this EP was a sign of a new direction for the band. Well, they do take a new direction, but not quite the one I expected. Despite its cheerful name, Isle of Bliss proves to be a much darker work than you may be accustomed to from this septet. Their newfound darkness opens up layers of depth, proving the band capable of bringing out beauty from even the darkest depths.

Despite the darker direction, Hanging Garden still dabble in a wide range of moods. On Isle of Bliss, they skillfully blend crushing riffs and Toni Hatakka’s deathly, muscular growls with gentle arpeggios and soft croons from Riikka Hatakka. Opener “To Outlive the Nine Ravens” illustrates this perfectly, as it blends dark growls with lovely trem melodies and a gentle duet with some more feel-good trems in an energetic tune that starts the record off right. Isle of Bliss then takes an unsettling turn on “Eternal Trees of Turquoise,” which features a duet of a different nature, where Toni’s menacing growls mix with Riikka’s sinister blackened rasps. Her performance reminded me a lot of the demon vocalist from Vesseles earlier this year, and it is a chilling turn away from the usual foil to Toni’s harsh growls. Things take yet another turn on the appropriately named “Isle of Bliss” and deceptively named “To the Gates of Hel.” These cheerful tunes feature uplifting guitar tones and some wonderfully catchy choruses sure to put your fearful heart at ease. In sum, Isle of Bliss is a moody beast that will hit you in all the feels.

Isle of Bliss by Hanging Garden

Isle of Bliss contains lush beauty thanks to its patient and melodic songwriting. At times, Hanging Garden shines a light through the darkness with soaring choruses and powerful melodic guitar leads that turn gloom into cheer. On “The Blights Nine,” a trem lead dispels the terrifying horror of Riikka’s rasps, while on “Arise, Black Sun,” the guitar melody transforms a growling duet into a piece of blackened beauty. The tremolos and the tour-de-force vocal performances from the Hatakka pair are not the only aspects that elevate the music. Hanging Garden use chugging, thick riffs to cast a doomy pall, whispery synths to invoke dreamy atmospherics, and piano segments to produce feelings of tranquility. All of these elements coalesce on the atmospheric climax, “Her Wailing Light,” whose beautiful chorus is a wonder in a sea of some great moments throughout Isle of Bliss.

As much as I didn’t want this record to end, there are a few areas where Hanging Garden could have done some trimming. “To Outlive the Nine Ravens” and “To the Gates of Hel” creep nearly into the seven-minute range, where their repetitive, formulaic nature begins to grow thin. Yet they are such terrific songs that the desire to stretch them out is forgivable. Perhaps the biggest letdown is the finale, “Beneath the Fallen Sky,” an atmospheric piece that lacks the punch of preceding tracks. “Her Waning Light” feels like a much more appropriate closer, with its emotional trem lead followed by such a tranquil conclusion. “Beneath the Fallen Sky” may fit a narrative arc as a resolution, and it’s really not a bad song, yet I think it’s just in the nature of resolutions to sometimes feel unsatisfying in the wake of highly emotional moments that precede them.

While I am a relative newbie to Hanging Garden, as far as I can tell, Isle of Bliss is their finest achievement to date. The addition of darker aspects to their sound, while remaining true to their roots, brings depth to their songwriting. Almost every song packs a wallop thanks to powerful singing and incredibly catchy and evocative guitar leads. This band poured their heart and soul into this one. It is a stunning record that will leave you in a state of bliss from start to finish.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026

It’s no secret that funeral doom is all about death, but in case you weren’t aware, Lone Wanderer hits you over the head with the fact (don’t worry, it’s not a fatal whack). The title of their latest record, Exequaie, is Latin for “funeral rites.” The album cover, from Ernst Ferdinand Oehme’s 1828 painting Procession in the Fog, depicts a ghostly funeral procession, and most song titles use death as a theme in some shape or form. Lone Wanderer have been at this for over ten years, but they’ve been independent until now, signing with High Roller Records for the release of Exequaie. According to the band’s promo sheet, this will be album number three, but perhaps it’s telling how funeral doom warps one’s sense of time when they claim that their 43-minute debut is an EP. Their follow-up, The Majesty of Loss, is only three minutes longer, so it’s anyone’s guess where they draw the line between LP and EP. Their albums have only gotten longer since, with The Faustian Winter hitting the hour mark and now Exequaie reaching a lofty 72 minutes. Honestly, if you’re looking for a soundtrack to your funeral, this isn’t a bad option.

On the funeral doom scale, Lone Wanderer fits the Oromet scale more closely than My Dying Bride or Godthrymm. Exequaie mixes the gentle with the crushingly heavy, and the heavier riffs carry more reverb than muscle, lending a more tranquil feel than raw power. Over the course of 24 minutes, the beastly opener “To Rest Eternally” demonstrates Lone Wanderer’s slow burn approach, with impenetrably deep vocals, glacial drum beats, and a slowly developed melody. The gentler portions put away the booming drums and instead twinkle with arpeggiated rhythm while the bass plays out a complementary melody. We hear this tug and pull throughout Exequiaie, from the melancholic and heavy to something more peaceful, still tinged with sorrow but carrying a little hope. Ironically, “Anhedonia”1 showcases the album’s most pleasurable and memorable riffs during its opening few minutes. The remainder is also exquisite, delving into immense sorrow before closing out in tranquility. The song guides you into gentle acceptance of the fate that awaits us all at the end.

Exequiae by Lone Wanderer

Going in line with the “funeral rites” theme, plenty of elements in Exequaie appear to represent religious symbols or godly figures. The opening minutes of “To Rest Eternally” provide a distant reminder of a church setting with the tolling of bells. This holy setting returns in the finale, “Epistemology of the Passed,” where organs play a mournful dirge alongside wistful arpeggios. The vocals from Bruno Schotten serve as an omnipresent character, his low rumbles coming off like thunder rolling through the sky. Scattered throughout the album, Lone Wanderer perform spoken word portions that serve to enhance this godly persona. While such song segments are generally a nuisance, here they fit seamlessly, taking on the presence of an Oz-like character, commanding yet distant. The purpose of these elements may be inscrutable, but they do provide a sense of formality and authority accompanying death.

As great as the individual tracks are, Exequiae’s biggest obstacle is its own length. With any funeral doom record, holding the listener’s attention can be a challenge, and a 72-minute runtime across 5 songs feels more like work than pleasure. Yet there is plenty to enjoy on this epic record, and Lone Wanderer does implement some variety to mix things up a bit. “Existence Nullified” has a moment of chugging death-doom riffs that take me back to early Swallow the Sun. “Epistemology of the Passed” has a similar increase in tempo thanks to energetic tremolos and brisk drum beats. These moments are brief and few, but all the more notable because of their rarity. In the end, Exequaie’s length isn’t a deal breaker because it has such exquisite compositions. There’s just so much beauty in the music it could go on for twice as long and it’d still be heavenly.

Lone Wanderer is kicking funeral doom off to a great start for 2026. There’s something about the band’s often gentle sound that creates calm, as opposed to bands that lay the despair and melancholy thick with more powerful, overbearing guitar tones. Don’t let the 72 minutes intimidate you. Set aside some time and let Exequiae’s mix of melancholic, peaceful, and even hopeful tones wash over you and transport you, for a time, to a place where you no longer need to worry.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: High Roller Records
Website: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: January 30th, 2026

Watching #SwallowTheSun but have to sit away from everything because chronic pain issues are too much right now.

Still, great show.

#livemusic #GothMetal #Metal

Charting the course to 2026: reflecting on 70000tons of Metal 2025 Artist Spotlight: Swallow The Sun:

#SwallowTheSun #ArtistSpotlight #70000tons #70000tonsOfMetal

Link: https://metalinsider.net/columns/artist-spotlight/charting-the-course-to-2026-reflecting-on-70000tons-of-metal-2025-artist-spotlight-swallow-the-sun

This stunning debut comes to us via members from across the globe—from England to Spain to Czechia to Brazil. Despite somewhat limited experience between them, the sextet plays like they’ve been jamming together for decades. They bring an eclectic range of styles from their previous and current bands, from black metal to scatological heavy metal to melodic doom to gothic metal, in order to craft a gentle yet brutal piece of gothic doom metal. I would like to give a warm welcome to Opia and their powerful debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep.

Opia deftly balances the gentle with the crushingly heavy, resulting in a record of beautiful melancholy that would make My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun proud. They achieve this with a dichotomy of soft arpeggios and heavy riffs, of tender cleans and harsh growls. This dichotomy amplifies the melancholic power of the music, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction when a song suddenly grows loud and brutal following a softer stretch. We hear this on tracks like “Days Gone By,” which opens with some nifty fretwork before exploding into heavier riffs. Opia flexes their true muscle on masterpieces like “Man Proposes, God Disposes” and “Silence,” where Tereza Rohelova’s cleans croon a melancholic melody before delving into such despairing heaviness that it’ll have you aching from the hurt. The similarly astonishing “The Eye” flips the melodic element on its head with a chorus where Rohelova’s growls deliver the beauty over top a soaring keyboard part.

I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by Opia

As great as the compositions are, the heartfelt performances by all musicians elevate the material. As frontwoman, Rohelova sets the tone with an electrifying performance on the level of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. Her cleans take on a haunting quality that adds a touch of the gothic, and while her growls don’t reach the muscular tone of Stainthorpe, they are nonetheless effective in setting a tone of brutality. The dual guitar work from Phoenix Griffiths and Dan Tregenna also dazzle. Their fretwork is so effective and creative, whether it’s the mellower arpeggios or crushing riffs, that there’s never a dull moment or a lull. Marcelo Teixeira, behind the kit, is also solid. He swaps between gentle drum and cymbal taps to pummeling blast beats on a dime. He really goes all out on a climatic moment on the finale, “On Death’s Door Part II,” that’ll leave you breathless. Important to setting up the gothic tone is keyboardist Jorge Afonso Rodriguez, who adds melodic depth as well as atmosphere. There’s a depth to the songwriting that opens up rewarding new avenues every time I give the record another spin.

Having been released in late April, I missed out on the opportunity to review I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by just a few weeks. But when I first heard it, I knew it was special enough to save for a TYMHM. A debut this powerful should not be missed, and having spent this extra time with it late in the year, I believe I made a mistake by not including it in my end of year list. This is a promising start for a group who, I hope, continues to craft songs together for a long time to come.

Songs to Check Out: ”Man Proposes, God Disposes,” “The Fade,” “The Eye,” “Silence

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SWALLOW THE SUN: Updated English-Language Translation Of Official Biography Available For Preorder

https://blabbermouth.net/news/swallow-the-sun-updated-english-language-translation-of-official-biography-available-for-preorder

#SWALLOWTHESUN #UpdatedEnglish #LanguageTranslationOfOfficialBiographyAvailableForPreorder #Blabbermouth #metal #music