One evening I was surfing the net trying to find new bands of interest. I wandered on to NESTs homepage and looked at the band links there when I noticed the link for OCTOBER FALLS. The description said acoustic atmospheric music which was already enough for me to check the band out immediately. Luckily there were some mp3s available from the MCD Tuoni because I found out that this is the kind of music Ive been trying to find for ages. I remember the first time I heard the song Tuoni I had to stop everything I was doing and just close my eyes and let the tears come for the song had touched me so deeply with its beauty and still does. It is something not many songs have ever done to me and believe it or not but this CD is filled with such songs. They are perfect in their beauty and deep melancholy. The songs drift slowly and shroud the listener in deep sorrow that feels like a heavy weight in the heart. Like an autumnal dark forest in the magical light of the full moon Tuoni stirs something deep inside oneself. That unexplainable feeling that youre witnessing something unique, something perfectly beautiful which makes you silently scream of joy but at the same time scars your mind for it is but a fleeting moment that can never happen again. In the case of Tuoni however, one can actually relive those moments whenever you allow yourself to be swept away by the music. There is just something so profoundly divine about this MCD that I cannot help but write such vaguely deep descriptions of it. If you still require some more hands on information then I can tell you that OCTOBER FALLS is the solo project of one Mr. M. Lehto. Tuoni is intended to be the first instalment of a trilogy which will grow with every release and should include vocals (I forgot to mention that Tuoni is purely instrumental) and more instruments (theres only a guitar, flute and piano on this one). The closest bands that resemble OCTOBER FALLS are TENHI, NEST, EMPYRIUM and ULVER (Kveldsanger) but theres also an evident OPETH vibe on the last song Epitaph. On a special note the professional looking digipack is graced with black and white photographs taken in a forest. They brilliantly serve as a visualisation of the dark music found within. Currently this MCD is sold out but it should be re-released on vinyl later this fall and there should also be a full-length on its way. It is planned to include some songs from this MCD as well as some new songs. This full-length should be released by Corvus Records with whom OCTOBER FALLS signed a deal recently. Some of you might know Corvus Records as the same label that released NESTs brilliant Woodsmoke album last year. But anyway, Tuoni is a piece of musical divinity you just have to hear for yourself to believe. Thats about it then. The only thing left to say is that I now possess the closest thing to perfect music I have come across on my journeys and it has scarred my mind forevermore…

REVIEWS
by: Royal Carnage
Rating: 8.5/10
Reviewer: JayKeeley

Hailing from Finland, OCTOBER FALLS (led by mastermind, Mikko Lehto) have now delivered their first independent self-release, Tuoni. Limited to 80 pressings, in fantastic home-made digipaks, the album does well in capturing the essence of dark, ambient, and acoustic melodrama similar to that found on latter-day EMPYRIUM or TENHI. Unlike some of these apparent influences, however, Tuoni presents a collection of eight instrumentals, with music composed primarily on the acoustic guitar, flute, and piano. If you can imagine, the musical atmosphere is matched perfectly to that of a nighttime forest closing in on an evening shoreline. Furthermore, there is an underlying emphasis of great sorrow throughout, where the imagery perhaps captures some body of bereavement before being washed away to the dawning of a new day. Whereas bands like TENHI, NEST, and even ULVERs Kveldssanger all hover around similar territory, they never delve quite so deeply into the prevailing sadness of the woodland as say, EMPYRIUM, and now OCTOBER FALLS. This is doom-inspired folk music, to say the least, and inevitably encompasses the solitude of creaking oak, fluttering candlelight, and the magic of morning mists emerging from the prior evening rain spells. Taking on the ideology of ULVERs trilogy, OCTOBER FALLS hope for Tuoni to represent the first in their own three-part chronicle. The remaining parts will see the adding of further instruments, and introduce more aspects of metal with vocals playing a key role through both clean and harsh delivery. However, as with any trilogy, the story isnt complete without all three segments and so I recommend bringing home one of the very few remaining copies of Tuoni before it disappears. *At time of publishing review, there were only 4 digipak copies left. An absolute collectors item this will now become - mark my words.*