ISENORDAL are different. Not fitting easily into the given stylistic drawers can often turn out to be both a blessing and a curse for a metal band. The six-piece from Seattle, WA in the United States is particularly hard to pin down. If push comes to shove, they could be described as a funeral doom act, although this hardly does their wide musical range justice. There are also notable influences of black metal, especially the harsh vocals but also the occasional vicious outbreaks of blizzard-riffs. Then again, the metal elements are diligently balanced by beautiful acoustic passages of American neofolk. On their third full-length, "Requiem for Eirênê", ISENORDAL have driven the interplay and cohesion of their musical core elements to a new level. The epic, meandering, and multi-faceted songs on this album each tell a dramatic story. Lead by various types of vocals, both female and male, that flow organically into each other, a wide array of instruments paints highly dynamic and lush sonic pictures. Each song of "Requiem for Eirênê" reveals a chapter of an overarching conceptual story that spans the whole of the album. The tale was written by drummer Brian Spenser and reflects personal experience that has been transformed into a profound mythological world, which is musically illustrated by ISENORDAL. In its course, the band is drawing from ancient myth, occultism, astrology, and the tarot among other symbolic systems to express a spiritual journey involving love, loss, grief in all its stages, hope, disappointment, exploitation, spiritual revelation, surrender, and finally, apotheosis. With "Requiem for Eirênê", ISENORDAL dare to face the curse that creating different and unique music can bring, and they conjure the blessing that an excitingly new and skilfully achieved magical sound may award. May the American funeral doom innovators reap the fruits of what they have so bravely sown!