It seems like listening to Finnish Jumalhamara’s Resignaatio was in a total previous life. Not that I remember that album well, but what I recall with certainty that it was weird, from cover art to the experimental nature of its black metal. Seeing that the band had a pair of EPs out recently I thought I would revisit and revel in the black metal avant-garde again.

Big mistake about black metal and Jumalhamara these days. The band has moved along from black metal entirely and is dealing in ambient drone on The Black Coming EP. For the first 5 min of the single 20+ long track the best description I can provide for The Black Coming is the sound of nothingness. Subsonic waves, a splash of water here and there, wind chimes sounding from afar before the storm, quiet machinery hum, nothing happens until a single dark piano note around 5 min mark startles everything. Profound and melodic, sadly, it does not repeat. There are changes after that, however. When you don’t expect any vocalization a wacky, touched by blissful mental illness, voice starts projecting as a lone flower oasis standing in the middle of the desert. Cosmos starts creeping in, as if nothing else matter. The croaky voice begins its slow submersion, passing breathing earthy layers on its perpetual way down, until everything washes out on some middle-of-the-earth shores, all peaceful and serene.

The pro of The Black Coming is while nothing seemingly happens over its 20+ course, you still get to relax, tense and then relax again. The con aspect of the EP though is exactly the same. Nothing ever happens, there is no culmination of any kind, so a few minutes after The Black Coming is over you don’t remember any of it. You just live in a moment, ignorant to whatever happens outside of the shell, and then you move on. Doubtful I will be playing this ever again.