Sowulo is a name that is very familiar in this house.  Their last full-length release Wurdiz ended up on Angela’s Best Of list for 2022 and many times we listened to both it and Grima together, either in the car or chilling on the couch.  Now it’s my turn to give them a proper review, with NIHT, the band’s sixth release, now a week and change into its life.  There truly is something about bands like Sowulo and their ilk that signify a change in seasons, especially the transition from summer to fall, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  How does it hold up to its contemporaries, though?

Sowulo, like their aforementioned companions, are a band that digs deep into Northern European history and culture in much the same way your Heilungs and Wardrunas do, albeit with their own particular spin on it.  Think less throat singing than Heilung (but not none) and a slightly wider array of instruments than Wardruna, but with the same grandiose, mystical and enchanting blend of spirituality and natural wonder.  As far as instruments go, we have your classic percussion, strings and your classic dark folk go-tos, like the nyckelharpa and the taglharpa, but also a lot of Celtic flair in the form of carnyx, pipes and Celtic harps.  There’s even plenty of synths and VSTs to round out the sleek, modern production that juxtaposes their ancient, traditional songwriting and instrumentation.  The songs on NIHT follow thematically with the rest of Sowulo’s releases, further exploring themes of Northern European philosophy and the various cycles of the universe: day/night, birth/death, decay/renewal and the season, to name but a few.  And with lyrics all in the Anglo-Saxon language, they sell it just as well as anyone else doing roughly the same style of music as them.  There is something about this particular genre and vibe of music that will always feel like a warm pair of sweatpants fresh out of the dryer to me.  It’s just comforting and comfortable, and there’s never a point where it doesn’t go down smooth.

Still though…NIHT has me wondering if the Germanic Dark Folk market is a little saturated at the moment.  Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing at all technically *wrong* with NIHT.  It’s got a lot going for it, especially in the instrumentation and execution department.  In fact, I think one thing that does manage to set Sowulo apart from their peers is the slick production across the album.  There are tracks on here that sound downright modern and radio-ready for a band that embraces themes from damn near prehistory.  Especially in my mind is the hip-hop tinged “Mōnaþblōd”: with its heavy emphasis on beat and hook it’s kinda begging for a remix.  And what a sick remix it would be.  Everything that Sowulo does, they do right…but so does everyone else.  So does Heilung and Wardruna and Osi and the Jupiter and all their cousins, and so in that respect, Sowulo kind of feels like it gets a little lost in the mix.  There must be something that they can do, some angle that they haven’t worked yet, that would set them apart from the pack, but they don’t quite manage to find it here.  NIHT is a fine album, but at the end of the day, it’s simply fine.  It gets in and gets the job done with no fuss, but I almost find myself missing the fuss, because there’s not a lot of memorable moments that last beyond the end of the album.

Overall, NIHT is a fun and affecting listen, and if you’re really into the dark folk scene this will certainly be an album you want to check out.  If you’re looking for something unique or extraordinary, though, you probably won’t find it here, but what you get is something that is undeniably solid.  And when all is said and done, that’s not a bad thing to be.

— Ian

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NIHT is available now on Season of Mist.  For more information on Sowulo, visit their official website.