The long and winding road - A review of Sinisthra's The Broad and Beaten Way

Sinisthra, previously known as Nevergreen is a Finnish sextet that combines doom and gothic metal in numbing soundscapes that are sometimes hard to digest. The band's debut record Last of the Stories of Long Past Glories was released fifteen years ago and even though most of the material on The Broad and Beaten Way had already been composed twelve years ago, it took fifteen years in total to release the band's second record. This was mainly due to the involvement of some members in other projects, such as singer Tomi Joutsen who has released eight successful studio records with Amorphis in the meantime.

The Broad and Beaten Way picks up where Last of the Stories of Long Past Glories left us fifteen years earlier. The record is filled with slow and numbing guitar riffs, stoic rhythm section, melancholy keyboard sounds, passionate vocals and elaborate song writing offering six tunes with a running time of about forty-three minutes. 

The opener ''Eterne'' is the most accessible song with a compact running time of just above four minutes, a coherent structure and a gloomy chorus. The combination of chugging riffs, melodic guitar sounds and longing keyboard layers evokes a sinister but dynamic atmosphere.

The album's best and longest tune follows immediately after with ''Closely Guarded Distance'' that sounds ironically fitting in times of the coronavirus confinement. The song convinces with a solid mixture of heavy riffs and powerful rhythm sections versus calmer passages dominated by mysterious keyboard sounds and melodic vocals. The song's shining highlight is the calm, eerie and melodic bridge where Tomi Joutsen steals the show and proves that he is one of the best vocalists in the world. His voice is so passionate that it almost brings tears to the eyes. The song takes some time to unfold but ends up growing with every spin.

Among the quieter tunes, ''Safe in the Arms of Everlasting Now'' stands out with its sad piano melodies, smooth rhythm section and soulful vocals. The heavier parts that contrast these patterns work efficiently and make for an entertaining track even though it might be a tad bit too long.

The other three songs have the problem that it takes more than just a few spins for them to unfold. They are calm, have unpredictable structures and often overstay their welcome. Die-hard fans of Anathema, Katatonia and Opeth might dig these songs more but they are a little bit too smooth for my taste.

To conclude, Sinisthra's The Broad and Beaten Way is best enjoyed if you are willing to invest some patience and time to discover the album in multiple spins with your headphones on. Fans of contemporary doom and gothic metal should certainly give this band a try. If you like the calmer and more complex tracks of bands such as Amorphis, Anathema, Katatonia, Opeth and The Old Dead Tree, then Sinisthra is a band worth discovering.

Final rating: 75%