Long languishing in the shadow of their prolific, tabloid-friendly neighbours to the West, when it comes to utter, blackened brutality, for all its ‘Eurovision metal’ populist pretensions of pointy-faced wannabe divas and friendly Vikings bouncing along to glorified sea shanties, swarming like woodlice from the light are sounds much more fitting for one of the most culturally alien and inscrutable nations in Northern Europe, bathed in darkness, depression and a legacy of Soviet interference and repression. Helsinki’s Gloomy Grim formed in 1995 as an outlet for the influences that frontman and vicious driving force Agathon accumulated in the short-lived Hellstorm, a primal monster spurred on by the early sounds of Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer and with a birthday of 1984, the earliest black metal band in his corner of Scandinavia. Originally nothing more than just a glorified solo project for a musician previous far more preoccupied with his numerous day-jobs in the equally bleak and hateful Barathrum, Thy Serpents and Soulgrind, Gloomy Grim released four full-length albums to a somewhat understated reaction; a ripple of cult fervour more suited to a band of their rare pedigree and fierce conviction. Now with four long years since their last album ‘The Grand Hammering’, Gloomy Grim have tempered their hate like a fine steel blade, inspired by horror movies, childhood encounters with the paranormal. 2008 is the beginning of a whole new age of symphonic spite that acts as a bittersweet reminder of a time when Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, the fallen idols of keyboard-laden black metal, were still worth caring about.

Track 1 – April – Within The Woods
Track 2 – May – Why Are They Screaming At Nights?
Track 3 – June – Akerspoke
Track 4 – July – Cold Fingers
Track 5 – August – So I Slept & Slept
Track 6 – September – Invoking The Flames (Burn, Burn, Burn)
Track 7 – October – Cellar Dweller
Track 8 - Novemer - And The Bird Came In
Track 9 – December - The Bells Toll My Name
Track 10 – January – Dying Breed
Track 11 – February – Astral Planes I Have Travelled Through
Track 12 – March – The Call