Vin de Mia Trix – This Landscape Is Alive (Review)

This is the third album from Ukrainian doom metal band Vin de Mia Trix.

Palimpsests was a record that topped my 20174 year end list, but that was a long time ago, and I never really expected to hear from Vin de Mia Trix again after so long. However, they resurfaced in 2022 with the EP Waves~Stars, and have now returned fully with the colossal This Landscape Is Alive.

Spanning four songs over 47 minutes, This Landscape Is Alive is an epic of doom-drenched majesty. Mournful, atmospheric, and rich in emotional weight, these songs leave a mark. It’s a progressive form of funeral doom, played with uncommon ability and striking talent.

This Landscape Is Alive surrounds the listener with massive doom soundscapes, crushing them with their magnitude, but also beguiling and enticing with their vast expanses. Vin de Mia Trix are very skilled at crafting layers of immersive worldbuilding that embrace the listener so completely that you’ll never want to be let go.

Despite the style, the heaviness, and the sense of hopelessness, the songs are not uniformly dark and dreary like you might expect them to be. Instead, we are treated to a multicoloured exploration of dappled light and shaded misery. It’s powerful, and it’s heartfelt. This Landscape Is Alive is so filled with feeling it is like Vin de Mia Trix very slowly plunge a sorrowful blade straight into your heart. Imbued with deep, longing, regretful melodic grandeur, this is a masterwork of nature-themed doom that is shockingly effective.

The different songs each have their own character within the well-formulated whole. As a record it feels very complete and well-rounded, allowing the band the room they need to express all the different facets of their multihued sound. From traditional doom metal to contemporary death/doom, from glacial mountains of doom to textured progressive wanderings, from screams and growls to emotive clean singing, Vin de Mia Trix have it all, and never let the quality levels dip below exceptional.

Vin de Mia Trix have exceeded my faded hopes, I have to say. I confess I wish This Landscape Is Alive had been released earlier in the year so that I could properly evaluate it in time for list season, but to be honest I’m just grateful it exists at all. However, even now I can confidently say that it’s certainly a consideration for the end of the year, and should be on everyone’s minds, in an ideal world.

Essential listening.