Review by Michael on April 11, 2025.

In The Woods never disappointed in their over thirty years lasting career although some of the late 90s stuff maybe was a little bit challenging so that the band disbanded after Strange In Stereo for about 14 years. Luckily the Norwegians got together again in 2014 an deliver ever since that year good releases with songs that stay more or less in your mind. Not that epic like on their opus magnum …HEart Of The Ages but really solid. With the departure of the Botteri brothers and James Fogarty (who now play pretty equal stuff in Nattehimmel it was quite doubtful if the band would continue but fortunately the only remaining founding member Anders Kobro found some really skilled musicians to go on with the legacy of the band. Introducing their new vocalist Bernt on "Diversum" which already is three years old (damn, time flies the older you get…) and now here we are with the second album recorded by the same crew called Otra.

At first the album cover is quite remarkable because it is so much different from the previous covers. This is no painting but a photo of the river Otra that shows a shattered boat and driftwood floating around. Kept in monochrome you may have some anticipation that the music will be dark and cold, too.

But with the first sounds of the opener "The Things You Shouldn't Know" the band shows more a fragile and pensive facet before they show some more eruptive tunes. Bernts' vocals are very smooth most of the time so it just feels as if you can relax and feel comfortable. It's just like coming home somehow. And the melodies, I guess they hadn't such great melodic parts for many years in their compositions. Here and there you really get reminded of HEart Of The Ages with all the drama and tension.

What is really remarkable on Otra is that even if you think that a song is quite average, they hit out some cool surprises all of a sudden just like in "The Crimson Crown". That one starts very unspectacular but after about one minute it turns out into a very emotional semi-ballad (which reminds me of Tiamat's "Do You Dream Of Me?" from Wildhoney) that lives once again especially from Bernts' voice. And to make it not too cheesy, they have incorporated some deep growls, too.

"The Kiss And The Lie" continues with the melody that we already got to know in "The Misrepresentation Of I", but here the basic sound is a little bit more blackish with some harsh tremolo picking and more fury in the sound. And that's pretty much back to the roots, I guess they haven't sounded that harsh for many years and there is to hope that they won't leave this track.

"Let Me Sing" might become the band anthem. This is a super catchy song with great lines to sing along to (how matching with that song title). Stomping, mid-paced and kept quite simple the song really creeps into your brain and creates an earworm you cannot get rid of.

But before I talk about every song in detail, just go and check the album by yourself. You will not be disappointed if you liked the earlier works of In The Woods. Otra has turned out to be a really great album by a band that obviously celebrated its second spring now and at least for me this album is for sure in the top 5 of 2025. No flaws, every song is a killer (also if it might need some spins to fully understand the music).

Rating: 9.5 out of 10