{"id":643031,"date":"2025-12-19T22:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643031\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T22:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:27:12","slug":"suotana-ounas-ii-things-you-might-have-missed-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643031\/","title":{"rendered":"Suotana – Ounas II [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Remember the Finnish melodic death and power metal fusion of the late \u201990s and early \u201900s? Bands like Children of Bodom<\/strong><\/a>, Kalmah<\/strong><\/a>, and Norther<\/strong> were all the rage for a short while. You even had stuff like Ensiferum<\/strong> for a folkier interpretation, or Catamenia<\/strong> for the blackened side of things. The truth is that it never really left. Suotana<\/strong> is one of the bands keeping this sound alive and well, and they have more history than one might think. They spawned in the mid-2000s but took until 2014 to start putting out material. Now, over a decade later, they\u2019re on their fourth full-length, and Ounas II continues right where predecessor Ounas I left off two years ago<\/a>. Judging them back-to-back, it seems the collective is only growing in strength.<\/p>\n

Ounas II is chock full of great songwriting. Melodic death metal, power metal, and even bits of black metal collide in this crazy Finnish kitchen, with Children of Bodom<\/strong> remaining the clear number one influence. Founding members Ville Rautio and Pasi Portaankorva utilize the dual guitar attack in classic \u201980s ways (\u201cWinter Visions,\u201d \u201cTwilight Stream\u201d), while Stratovarius<\/strong> sensibilities color their frantic touches of melodic power\u2014both always positives in my book. The harsh vocals of Tuomo Marttinen are frosty and vicious, similar to their swamp brethren in Kalmah<\/strong>. Tommi Neitola\u2019s keyboards are the cherry on top, adding a Bodom<\/strong>esque symphonic bombast layer that occasionally approaches Wintersun<\/strong> levels without going overboard (\u201cThe Crowned King of Ancient Forest,\u201d \u201c1473 Ounas\u201d). <\/p>\n

Ounas II by Suotana<\/a><\/p>\n

Dealing with two-part concepts is always a challenging task, but Suotana<\/strong> came prepared. It feels like they\u2019ve improved on all of Ounas I\u2019s already strong qualities: the production has more breadth, the album\u2019s layers delve deeper, and there\u2019s more energy and variety in its songs (\u201cForeverland,\u201d \u201cTwilight Stream\u201d). However, the most impressive thing about Ounas II is that it\u2019s even denser than its sibling. The album clocks in at 39 minutes compared to the first part\u2019s 41, which has the huge advantage of avoiding a bloated \u2018B-sides\u2019 feel so common with other double album concepts. And despite its tight runtime, the songwriting has plenty of room to flourish, as exemplified by \u201c1473 Ounas.\u201d Furthermore, to complement the Summoning<\/strong> cover that crowned the first part, Ounas II unleashes a cover of Children of Bodom<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cHatebreeder\u201d as its encore. Whether you imagine it as a proper track or a bonus, it\u2019s a great way to end the record with a bang while honoring your influences.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Suotana<\/strong> has had a long journey to get to this point, and it\u2019s been more than worth it. Their songwriting is only getting faster and better, which further reinforces its catchy extremities. In many ways, Suotana<\/strong> feels like the melodeath-forward twin to Moonlight Sorcery<\/strong>\u2019s excellent brand<\/a> of power\/black metal. Both bands dress to impress with big riffs, melodic violence, and keyboard bombast in all the right ways. Though the back-to-back experience is great, Ounas II is a package that works wonders on its lonesome too, and I think that\u2019s another mark of success for the band. I\u2019m excited to see what these self-aware wizards pictured above are going to summon from that lake next, Ounas or not.<\/p>\n

Tracks to Check Out<\/strong>: \u201cWinter Visions,\u201d \u201cTwilight Stream,\u201d \u201cThe Crowned King of Ancient Forest,\u201d and a special shout out to the excellent cover of \u201cHatebreeder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remember the Finnish melodic death and power metal fusion of the late \u201990s and early \u201900s? Bands like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,197542,152290,197543,77,48812,152293,11466,4259,197544,269,197545,197546,24760,197547,197548,11468,197549,189702,191850,16,15,197550],"class_list":{"0":"post-643031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-catamenia","10":"tag-children-of-bodom","11":"tag-ensiferum","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-finnish-metal","14":"tag-kalmah","15":"tag-melodic-black-metal","16":"tag-melodic-death-metal","17":"tag-moonlight-sorcery","18":"tag-music","19":"tag-norther","20":"tag-ounas-ii","21":"tag-power-metal","22":"tag-reaper-entertainment","23":"tag-stratovarius","24":"tag-summoning","25":"tag-suotana","26":"tag-things-you-might-have-missed-2025","27":"tag-tymhm","28":"tag-uk","29":"tag-united-kingdom","30":"tag-wintersun"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115748593462176281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}