I recall getting quite excited about the Danes’ Iotunn debut album, Access All Worlds, back in 2021. Since then, it is with regret that the band has fallen off my radar until 2024’s Kinship threw them back into the crosshairs. That album saw the band hit quite a few end-of-year lists and rightly so.
Iotunn – Waves Over Copenhell
Release Date: 9 January 2026
Words: Paul Hutchings
If you do not want to spend a couple of hours investigating those two albums, may I politely suggest that you do not let this live album pass you by.
Recorded at Copenhell in 2023, this was, by all accounts, a visual as well as an aural spectacular that took some beating. Over 54 minutes, the quintet demonstrate why they are something a bit special.
Iotunn’s songs are long, the shortest of the five here the near nine-minute-long Towers Of Nihility. What that allows is for five sprawling epics to progress in glorious style, with magnificent musicianship that echoes the best of Melodic Death Metal mixed with some gargantuan Progressive elements, which are more than just meanderings of fancy.
It is reasonable to say that not all live albums are created equally. And many live albums are tedious to the point of paint-drying levels. Waves Over Copenhell does the exact opposite, drawing you in deeply, as the thunderous combination of savage riffs blends with melodic passages that calm.
Vocalist Jón Aldará brings a range that not many can match, with his soulful cleans echoing elements of Candlemass singers of yore. That he can do the more aggressive growling delivery throws him into the territory of Primordial’s AA Nemtheanga, but it is the ability to switch with ease that ensures attention is maintained.
The five songs are all massive. As I said, their length allows for plenty of technical workouts but retains the band’s raw intensity as they power forward.
The groove of Mistland that is the central pillar of the set is compelling, whilst Voyage Of The Garganey I reminds us that this is a band steeped in cosmic contemplation. It also highlights the band’s breadth of styles, flitting from crushing Death Metal through Progressive Power Metal and space rock with an ease that demands attention.
Few live albums make you sit up and take notice. No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith always sticks out. I am not saying that Waves Over Copenhell is in the same ballpark, no, sir. But if there is an album that should push a band forward and on to bigger things, then this is it.
Waves Over Copenhell was mixed by drummer Bjørn Wind Andersen, mastered by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Amaranthe, Epica, U.D.O.) at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark and will be available digitally and on exclusive vinyl. Released on 9 January 2026 via Metal Blade Records, pre-orders are available from here.
