New band featuring Finnish metal scene legends opens an ancient chasm of Black Metal, born of an epic tradition.
Rising from the deep valleys of Kymi in southernmost Finland, I Am The Night is Black Metal rooted in the classic early 90’s tradition, where walls of guitars and synthesizers raise the forces of darkness in a battle against the heavens and burning angels light up the night sky.
Brought forth by underground titans of Finnish Metal, Markus Vanhala (Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum), Janne Markkanen (ex-Omnium Gatherum), Okko Solanterä and Walteri Väyrynen (Paradise Lost, Bodom After Midnight), the band’s origins date back to the dimly lit subterranean rehearsal rooms of the mid-nineties where the fires of Vanhala and Markkanen’s Black Metal zeal were ignited.
“Black metal art has been a continuous and serious pursuit in my personal life since my early teenage years”, explains guitarist Vanhala, and he continues; “In The Nightside Eclipse, Storm Of The Light’s Bane and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas opened the gate to the dark side for me years ago, as can be heard from the music we make with I Am The Night.”
In recent years I Am The Night rapidly began to gather flesh on it’s old bones, and in 2020 the spark burst into a full blaze when elder statesmen Vanhala and Markkanen hired younger cohorts Väyrynen and Solanterä to help bring their morbid visions into reality. Vanhala states that: “Our debut record, the result of a yearning for ancient darkness, turned out to be just the time capsule we wanted it to be, far removed from modern metal. I’ve seldom found anything interesting in post nineties Black Metal. We wanted to realise this in the underground way that felt fitting to the music, and chose to work with Svart Records.”
Svart Records is set to release the first I Am The Night limited 12 inch maxi single on June 11th 2021. Hear Me O’ Unmaker, will be limited to 500 copies for the newly initiated and features a rendition of Acclamation of Bonds by the Norwegian cornerstone to second wave black metal, Emperor, on the flipside. The debut I Am The Night album While The Gods Are Sleeping will be released in the late autumn.
“Our songs are stories about the worship of night and the triumph of the powers of darkness. At night, sun to his slumber and shadows all over, the forces of the night rise to the heavens, cast angels out and usher in a new era of individual freedom”, vocalist Solaterä explains
“I Am The Night is a real band not a project. It is unrestrained creation. A ray of darkness for us in the vacuum created by the pandemic. The future remains unseen, and all the better for it.”
Seldom has an instant classic band and timeless sound reached our ears at Svart Records, but we are certain that there will be hordes of new initiates, prepared to declare I Am The Night their favourite new ray of darkness.
Line-up:
Vanhala - guitar, synth (Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum)
Markkanen - bass (ex- Omnium Gatherum)
Väyrynen - drums (Paradise Lost , Bodom After Midnight)