It was more or less 10 years ago when I first listened to SENTENCED and I totally fell in love with them and of course, with their reincarnation called POISONBLACK. I still recall going to a concert where they were playing as a support band, and being that the main reason for going to that concert (although they actually ended up not playing since the instruments never arrived at the venue...).

Long introduction, but just to tell that such a genre is something I really like, and therefore I had some expectations when it came to this debut album from WELKINS BOREAL, a Finnish band founded by Teemu Kautonen in 2018 in Helsinki, but with roots back in the nineties. It can almost be seen as the reincarnation of NATTVINDENS GRAT, one of the band in which Kautonen was playing at that time. "Phantoms of yesteryear" is composed of 9 gothic songs, and it is largely influenced by SENTENCED, TO/DIE/FOR, etc. I have found the album, unfortunately, very weak, without personality, and with no real highlights.

The opener "Sleep eternal" more or less defines the style throughout the entire album: deep vocals, decent guitars, but fails to be emotionally consistent, as well as failing to have some catchy parts. I would just pick the slow "Discordia" as a song to be mentioned, with a nice piano as intro and a decent crescendo, but nothing more than that. Also the following "Thelemite" has an interesting pattern, but in my opinion misses to be aggressive enough in the central parts.

The piano-driven "Sorrow's shroud" closes an album that has failed my expectations, that tries to get inspiration from the more famous Gothic acts, but without putting anything personal in. Unfortunately, my opinion on this album is negative. If you need to listen to some good Gothic music, just pick something from the good old past, like SENTENCED, and you will not be disappointed.