What’s the consensus on Sojourner? Thumbs up or down? Their 2020 album, Premonitions, was their third full-length, but their first record to really come onto my radar in any significant way. And I think some of it killer! At their best, this band sounds like Enslaved and Insomnium had a baby, and that baby grew up to be every bit as cool as you’d hope, like some kind of anti-Nick Simmons or something.
But sometimes they have this vibe that’s way more folk metally and/or symphonic power metally. At their worst, this band Nightwish and Eluveitie had a baby, and you want to take that baby’s lunch money so badly, like it was Nick Simmons or something.
Now Sojourner have released “Perennial,” one-half of an upcoming EP, also called Perennial, and it’s pretty much a perfect mix of the group’s two styles. By which I mean, there are parts I love and parts that are like nails on a chalkboard to me. I feel so torn!
And yet, in a weird way, that’s a good thing… ’cause the band either has two new members or three new members (depending on who you ask), but their presence hasn’t affected the band’s sound any. So the good and the bad alike are still present, which is terrific news for those of you think I’m nuts and would LOVE to hang out with the baby of Nightwish and Eluveitie.
As per usual, I encourage you to make up your mind. Listen to “Perennial” below.
Co-vocalist Emilio Crespo says of the track:
“With wanting to revisit the old style of Sojourner I decided to tap into our roots on a lyrical level. ‘Perennial’ very much follows the thread of nature and it’s loss at our very own hands. This theme was prevalent in several songs on our first album so it made sense to revisit that. The vocals were meticulously worked on with Lucia to make sure that every single word worked in its tone and placement. Later, with Tom joining in on backing vocals at the very end, we truly felt happy with the end result.We are super excited about our future with our two new awesome members!”
Adds multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mike Lamb:
“When I approached the songwriting for this mini EP I wanted to do something special that encompassed both where we began and where we are today, because while we’ve grown and changed over the last 6 years we still have the same passion and vision for the band that brought us together initially. I approached both the songwriting and recording for this EP in the same way that I did on Empires of Ash and The Shadowed Road, even down to recording all of the instruments back in New Zealand again for the first time since we began, in the same room where I wrote ‘Heritage of the Natural Realm’ in 2015.
“It also seemed like a fitting time to do something that sat somewhere between a reinterpretation of ‘Heritage…’ and a sequel of sorts for the second EP track, ‘Relics of the Natural Realm’, bringing our 2015 beginnings full circle back to where we are now and the band that we’ve evolved into in 2021. This is reflected in the cover art, again by our good friend Jordan Grimmer who did the original Empires of Ash cover [below], showing the meeting of Sojourner both past and present. We couldn’t be happier with our incredibly talented new members, both of who turned in absolutely beautiful vocal performances, and we’re so excited about the bright future ahead for the band.”
Perennial is out June 4 on Napalm. Pre-order it here.
