Sorni Nai and the Dyatlov Pass Incident

In October I talked about the presence of themes surrounding serial killers in popular music, especially in underground rock and metal. In a related way various artists have taken to addressing real historical tragedies and unsolved mysteries in their music. In a more straightforward way this can be seen in the many groups and albums inspired by WWI, WWII, or any of the many outbreaks of the Black Plague (my favourite being the funeral doom group The Slow Death). However, others take a specific focus on pieces of history less well understood, those which have prompted conspiracy and mystery.

In 2015 The Russo-Finnish post-black metal band Kauan released Sorni Nai on Blood Music, it is to my mind one of the very best and most timeless projects of its genre. The album combines delicate, somber post-rock and folk elements with weighty, atmospheric black metal to create an absolutely elemental sound of pure frigid stillness. The reason I'm talking about the album today is due to its thematic concept: a single song split into sections to investigate and explore the 1959 Dyatlov Pass Incident.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident is one of many, many stories from all around the world which caution against braving the cold. Its status in the realm of macabre and mystery isn't unlike the many stories we might be familiar with here in America of 19th century Manifest Destiny convoys attempting to cross the continent too late in the year, or taking unwise detours and shortcuts: The Donner Party being our most famous, trapped in the mountains of California and driven to cannibalism.

In 1959, a group of 9 Soviet ski hikers braved a multi-day journey through the Northern Ural mountains in Russia, departing on January 27th of that year. After one of their members turned back due to medical issues, the remaining 8 would meet their tragic demise on February 1st-2nd after making camp on a mountainside. The incident has remained in public conscience due to the unusual nature that many of the the hikers were found in once the snow had melted. Their bodies were found spread over a wide area, hundreds of feet apart, one of them was completely undressed. Their tent was ripped apart, and while many of them died from hypothermia, two showed signs of excessive head and chest trauma.

Several books have been written on the subject, some more sensationalised than others, and a 2013 found-footage horror film centered on several Americans investigating the incident. Theories about what could have scared the hikers out of their tent in the middle of a blizzard range from an alien encounter, a bear attack, military testing, or even an incident of mass psychosis. The best theories stem from different rare types of dangerous weather incidents, including a slab avalanche or something known as katabatic wind.

Kauan's lyrics are entirely in Finnish so reading them takes some translation. The band take a fairly spiritual take on the event, lamenting the loss of life through both the POV of the hikers themselves as well as through the Goddess Sorni Nai of the Mansi people of the Urals.

What interests me about Sorni Nai isn't really it's lyrical content though. Instead it's the way that it uses a genre synonymous with the cold to tackle a story which proves its horrific danger.

Morbidly fun as it may be to come up with crazy explanations for the strange state many of the Dyatlov Pass hikers were found in, the likely reality of their deaths comes down to the utter hostility of such an environment. The match between Kauan's naturalistic, lonely sound with the visages of frostbiting wind and total isolation is incredible. It's especially effective on the later tracks on the album, including the fantastic and mournful closer "Sat".

This isn't to say that the early tracks are lacking. The opener "Akva" starts with incredibly melancholic strings before moving towards a melodramatic piano melody and a mix of soaring high vocals and tenebrous low ones. This soft opening serves to emphasize the later darkness in the metal elements and create the incredible dynamism which makes the album's tonal tight-rope-walk so effective. The second track "Kit" demonstrates this constast best, with Kauan's heavier elements slowly creeping in like an approaching storm.

Paul Taylor - Web Content Director

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