Nest - Trail of the Unwary (2007)

Looking back at 2007 there were a lot of releases I missed out on, some for reasons I can’t quite even comprehend. One of them happens to be Nest’s sophomore release, ‘Trail of the Unwary,’ which didn't end up in my hands until nearly a year after it's original release date, but a wise man once said, “Better late than never.” Trail of the Unwary continues on in Nest’s dark atmospheric acoustic style of music, which thus far still sounds refreshing and entirely matchless to others.

The soul of Nest’s music is a blend of old Finnish folklore with dark ambiance. What sets this Finnish duo apart from other neo folk bands out there is the fact that they don’t use any acoustic guitars at all. Instead they use the traditional Finnish instrument called the Kantele. The Kantele is over 2000 years old, and belongs to the horizontal harp family and can have anywhere from five strings to thirty strings on it (The one used in Nest has only fifteen though).

The main thing with this album is the atmosphere, and quite frankly it has one of the best I’ve ever felt before. When listening to this album I can close my eyes and picture myself walking through a cold dark forest. I happen to be very fond of forests and the feelings I get when I walk through them are simply indescribably. It’s one of the few places in this world where I feel safe and at complete peace. So the fact that Nest is able to recapture this feeling is greatly admirable.

For me Nest’s music has always been highly enjoyable during the Autumn and Winter months of the year and I remember, oddly enough, when I got this album it began snowing shortly after pressing play. I found myself gazing out my living room window watching the snow ruthlessly descending to the earth, eventually I turned all the lights out, got a glass of wine, put my feet up, and continued gazing until all sixty eight minutes of the album had expired. Wondrous indeed.

While this album doesn’t seem to offer too many new components to the Nest style of music what it does seem is that all previous facets of the bands music seem improved upon. The highly melodic synths are mysterious, full of character, and gorgeous at all times while similar words could be used to describe the Kantele work. Interestingly, ‘Hunt’ (as well as a few other songs) have some very doom-ish sounding heavy electric guitar riffs at various points in the song, while John Haughm (Agalloch) adds his voice to, ‘Kontio’ & ‘The Turning of the Tides’ and Laurie Ann Haus (Todesbonden) is featured on, ‘Across the Waters.’ Of course there are nature samples still and some usage of bass guitar and various percussions on each song, which serve to enhance the mood even further.

All things considered Nest is one of the finer bands currently creating dark atmospheric music and since music of this sort is a regular in my stereo I’d have to say this album is utterly required. Now, I eagerly await the bands next chapter of excellence...