MARIANAS REST

As 2026 swiftly shapes up to be another depressing, atrocity-filled year, the healing power of crushing, melancholy metal becomes ever more vital to our sanity. MARIANAS REST have been asking questions about the futility of existence, and the bottomless chasm of loss and lost love, for the last decade. Finland has a strong record when it comes to bands like this, but aside from the all-conquering SWALLOW THE SUN, no one comes close to this band's rich blend of dynamic sorrow and melodic disquiet. The follow-up to 2023's widely praised "Auer", "The Bereaved" continues the Finns' slow-motion momentum, providing the perfect soundtrack for the barren, emotional wastelands that we currently find ourselves exploring as a greatly diminished species. In terms of catharsis, MARIANAS REST are old hands, and these new songs exhibit little interest in veering off on some daring tangent, preferring instead to keep pursuing the same crestfallen course that has served them so well up until this point. For those who find joy, hope and immense satisfaction when such a morbid mindset is transformed into song, "The Bereaved" is an object lesson in delivering the goods, but somehow with more power and grace than ever before.

It is plain from gently experimental opener "Thank You for the Dance", that MARIANAS REST are still tinkering with their formula. These songs inhabit a familiar atmospheric realm, but thanks to a gorgeously overblown production, they fill the air with more purposeful charisma and downtrodden relatability than the band have previously demonstrated. "Thank You for the Dance" is full of yearning and dismay, but it is also a warm and welcoming entry point. Likewise, "Rat in the Wall" is pitch-black and punishing, but sufficiently melodic and elegant that its spikiness is offset by an ethereal fog of abstraction. Rarely creeping above a pitiless, slow-to-mid-pace, "The Bereaved" is full of such glowering delights, wherein the morose crunch of PARADISE LOST is fleshed out into something harder to define in such mundane, humanist terms. MARIANAS REST are steeped in old-school melody, gothic indulgence, and the reassuring bombast of modern metal, but there is a surreal and unsettling edge to many of these songs, and it sets this album apart from many similar releases as a result.

At times, like on the sweetly despondent "Divided", it is as straightforward as it needs to be. Vocalist Jaakko Mäntymaa is an authoritative presence that provides a sturdy connection between real-life misery and the dark, otherworldly turmoil of our troubled imaginations. On "Burden", his bruising growls battle for space amid MARIANAS REST's maximalist riffing and ice-cold ambience, as flashes of melody bubble up through slender cracks in the sextet's melodramatic façade. In contrast, "Diamonds in the Rough" is a proudly straight-ahead doom / death anthem, with graceful guitar harmonies, a surging, rugged underbelly, and clean vocals that are grand, austere and fiendishly catchy.

"The Bereaved" is deceptively diverse and finds room for the brisk, succinct likes of "Goodbyes and Good Intentions" and more fervently progressive, amorphous fare like the brooding synth avalanche of the instrumental "Tyhja". Evidence of a band still honing their craft, these songs confirm that there is depth to the band's heartbroken shtick. The closing "The Colour of You" may be the finest song MARIANAS REST have yet released, its delicate evolution unfolding over seven exquisite minutes that seem purposefully arranged to forcefully drag tears from your face. Both beautiful and devastating, Mäntymaa's intense vocal shifts from barbarous roar to ephemeral whisper, reaching new heights of beleaguered resignation with each rousing, declamatory chorus. It might not be enough to cheer us all up, but "The Bereaved" harbors messages of cautious optimism about the state of life, the universe and everything. Be sad, it seems to say, but remember that we are all in this fucked up world together.