Each new album by Finnish band KOSMOS is a very special event, due to their enchanting aesthetic coherence: no concessions to trendy modernism, but rather a sound that combines psychedelia, folk, and progressive, with melancholic overtones (with a starring role in the mellotron and Paivi Kilmanen’s sweet vocals), but also epic, esoteric, and rich with Nordic pathos. Their native-language singing accentuates their originality and the beauty of their Scandinavian psych-folk atmospheres.

“Kaarmesormus” (Serpent Ring) is their sixth album, arguably their darkest, both musically and lyrically. The lyrics have a mystical, cosmic feel, accompanied by traditional rock instrumentation, as well as mellotron, violin, and saxophone.

Nine songs, with a first part with a lighter, more pastoral feel (including a beautiful Finnish version of the traditional “Scarebourough fair,” made famous by Simon & Garfunkel, which here becomes “Tuuli kay lavit sein,” or “The wind is blowing through me”) followed by a second part with dark electric riffs and an epic, ancestral crescendo