Iotunn blew some life into an otherwise comatose melodeath genre with their debut album, Access All Worlds, which received deservedly high praise for its epicness and progressive leanings, drawing comparisons to bands like Borknagar and Arcturus. While I found that album to be a little drawn out and uneven, there can be no doubts about its quality and potential, and I was pretty excited to see what they would conjure up on their sophomore effort, Kinship.

While not flawless, it turns out they've been honing their songwriting skills as Kinship sounds focused, with more of the sweeping, massive songs, loaded with melody that draw on many of their fellow Nordicmen. Borknagar, Arcturus, Insomnium, Scar Symmetry, Enslaved and Wintersun are bands that come to mind and I could go on. You will find little meandering nonsense (I'm looking at you, Time II) despite more than an hour worth of music and an average song length of 8.5 minutes. The musicianship is of very high quality, with a robust rhythm section, thrilling riffs and soaring guitar solos, as well as vocals with a lot of character. The vocals are mostly clean, with some growly bits (which I guess makes this album more prog than melodeath). Jon Aldará's voice has a lot of emotion, and especially his clean vocals are very well executed. This is perhaps best heard towards the end of album highlight "Twilight" and "I Feel the Night," or on the otherwise unremarkable ballad, "Iridescent Way," where he sounds almost Roy Khan-esque.

Kinship opens incredibly strong with three excellent, highly memorable songs in "Kinship Elegiac," "Mistland" and "Twilight," where the band showcase all of their strengths, setting a high standard for themselves. Consequently—and perhaps I'm being unfair here—my main gripe with it is that the rest of the songs, with the exception of "Earth to Sky," do not quite reach the same level as the opening trio. Granted, "I Feel the Night" and "The Coming End" are good, but they stumble on "Iridescent Way" and album closer "The Anguished Ethereal." While I enjoy the album as a whole, this disrupts the flow just enough for me to become grumpy and dock them a few points.

In an attempt to be fair, though, while I still get the sense that Iotunn are finding their feet as a relatively young band, the progression from Access all Worlds is clear and there should be no doubt about the high quality of this release. This band is a breath of fresh air in modern metal music, and Kinship contains several truly brilliant songs and will stick in my rotation for the foreseeable future. I would not be surprised to see it on several year-end lists.