Mist Descends – ‘Horizons’

Melodic Metal

Inverse Records

Release Date – March 7th 2024

Review by Smudge

All I know about Mist Descends is that they’re from Helsinki, Finland and they formed in 2014. I do wish the PR/record company would give us just a bit more information.

Kicking off with ‘Hexagon’ which, I’ll admit, has its moments however Julia’s vocals were a bit ‘off’ so it wasn’t until the darker ‘Soul Of A Masochist’ that things got better. It’s a slow burn full of atmosphere and emotion with an epic feel and some wonderful guitar work from Peltsi. ‘Tears From The Sky’ brings the acoustic out for the start and Julia’s heavily accented vocal comes on like Lucifer’s Johanna Platow Anderson, sweet but with a chilling undercurrent that says do not mess with this chick. Niko gets in on the act with some masculine lines as a counterpoint which works well before the sea laps the shore and another soft acoustic line brings us ‘Waves Of Nice’. It’s melodic, folky and floaty and builds after halfway with another sublime piece of axe work from Peltsi. An 80’s style synth introduces ‘M.A.B.D’ and we’re off onto the dancefloor with a quirky guitar line before the power chords come in on the chorus. Pure power pop rock with a call to arms in the middle – great stuff. ‘Blind Hope’ turns the lights down and gets a bit creepy with a shimmering guitar line and sinister synths as Julia lures you in with a soft sweet vocal, but you’ve been warned!

After a bit of a dodgy start, this developed into a tidy package. Musically these guys are mustard, but they are a little let down by some of Julia’s performances. She has the pipes definitely but maybe she was directed down the wrong routes during recording, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. Worth checking out.

Track List –

1 – Hexagon

2 – Soul Of A Masochist

3 – Tears From The Sky

4 – Waves Of Nice

5 – M.A.B.D

6 – Blind Hope