MIRZADEH are a gothic black metal band from Finland and are no strangers to the world of black metal as they have been around since the turn of the century, with over twenty years of experience behind them the band are no strangers to the studio as they have released three demos, "First Demon" in the year 2000 and both "Profetia" and "Sweet Souls Of Shadows" in 2002. On top of that the band have three full length studio albums released also, their debut record "Ancient Rites" in 2003, followed up in 2006 by their second album "The Creatures Of Loviatar" with no releases for a further eight years the band released their third full length studio record "Desired Mythic Pride" in 2014 and now they're back and started off 2021 with a bang as they released their new EP "Sauna" via Inverse Records on the first of January.

The EP is packed with five dark sounding gothic tracks for black metal fans to enjoy. From the demonic sounding vocals of Mika Kyrönlahti to his intense guitar battle with Shagul to create such a heavy sound which is backed up by the melodic drumming of Juha and glued together by the bass skills of Lues while also having an interesting element added with the keyboard of Johannes to give the band a uniquely heavy sound.

Prior to the release of this EP the band released two singles from it to give fans a taste of what's to come. They initially released the title track and EP closing track "Sauna" at the end of November 2020 and just under three weeks later they released the EP's opening track "Rotten Sights" in early December before they released the EP as a whole on New Years Day 2021.

First single and last track on the EP the title track "Sauna" is a very powerful track to end an EP off with which I thought was a great choice, very interesting sound to it as it sounds musically like a very grand, ballad style track but vocally it sounds very demonic and dark which definitely makes for an interesting sound.

The EP's opening track and second single "Rotten Sights" was the perfect track to open this EP with as it was very intense and in the listeners face from the moment it started with it's heavy sounding guitar riffs and hard hitting drums. It is definitely one of the most intense sounding tracks on this EP. Having been released prior to the EP itself. Listeners may be familiar with the track also which may grab their attention from the get-go which makes this a great choice to open the EP with.

 Having listened through this EP in it's entirety I can say that fans of gothic black metal will enjoy it, each track has it's own unique sound so there's definitely something there for everybody to enjoy and although they've been around over 20 years they are still one black metal fans should keep an eye out for.