Review by Saxy S for Dzö-nga - Thunder in the Mountains (2020)

The newest album from Boston based symphonic black metal band, Dzö-nga, has all of the makings of one of this year's best heavy metal albums. There is so much to love here. The compositions of these songs are effortless, blending clean and harsh vocals, leads guitar, flutes and strings, not to mention the fantastic dynamic contrast between loud and soft sections. I really enjoyed how the band was able to build through the first half of “The Death of Minnehaha”, slowly adding new elements to a previous idea and making it grow in intensity.

“Heart of Coal” and “Flames in the Sky” both have some fantastic melodic hooks to come back to, making them instant standouts for me. The mixing is stellar, as it deals with the heavy guitar work that owes a lot to symphonic/power metal, while the melodic touches from the strings, flutes and other instruments are wonderful. The bass lines are fruitful and forward thinking, the percussion work is pretty crazy at times, and the tour de force of clean female vocals and harsh black metal screeching makes for a wonderful dichotomy and allows for the group to be able to make all of these crazy transitions without having any of them sound forced.

If I had to criticize this album for anything, the album does feel like it ends abruptly with “The Death of Minnehaha” fading out rather than a clean finish. Also, while the penultimate track “Starlight, Moonlight, Firelight” does sound very nice, its sole purpose feels like a musical reprieve; allowing the listener to catch their breath before the eleven minute closer. But these are just minor quibbles on what is an excellent album. If you are a fan of the symphonic or folk sides of atmospheric black metal, then this will be essential listening in 2020. Don’t leave these mountains untraversed.