Though death acts as a recurring theme throughout much of their genre, atmospheric metal band The Man-Eating Tree have finally come back to life in 2025! A decade after their last record ‘In the Absence of Light,’ Janne Markus has assembled a new cohort of musicians— most notably recruiting Manne Ikonen of Ghost Brigade— to strike back with ‘Night Verses.’ It’s a comfortable return, languishing in all the gothic soundscapes and extended compositions the group have always dwelled in: if anything, the new album can be too well-rounded at times, never quite managing to fully elevate itself above the label of ‘mundane.’

Fans of The Man-Eating Tree will be pleased to hear that, despite lineup changes, ‘Night Verses’ stays true to the band’s roots: it’s a record dominated by mid-tempo barrages and sorrowful mood-pieces, devoting itself completely to a bleak, mournful atmosphere that defines every moment. In some ways, ‘Night Verses’ achieves its goals better than any The Man-Eating Tree record before it. ‘Days under the Dark’ introduces us to the group’s largest and most demanding sound design yet, full of hulking guitar riffs and thunderous drums that slowly give way to ghostly keys and forlorn clean vocals. Tracks like ‘All our Shadows’ and ‘Abandoned’ feel bigger than anything the band have previously managed to craft, flowing between aggressive crescendos and cautious mellow passages without a hitch— the production on ‘Night Verses’ manages to be both grandiose and intimate at once, balancing the band’s various sounds admirably.

In attempting to make these cuts so large though, The Man-Eating Tree frequently sacrifice the grit that often grounded their best material. Though near-every element of ‘Night Verses’ is handled professionally and purposefully, no performance nor idea is ever allowed off the chain: the band prioritise a delicate balance of sounds over crafting impressive moments, and the result is a record that regularly feels quite aimless. Ten-minute closer ‘Reflections’ is a perfect example: though the song’s sparse notes of piano, rising tension and climactic guitar riffs are all well-handled, the cut ultimately plods across its lengthy runtime in a disappointingly lethargic manner. Similar criticisms could be levied at a number of lengthier tracks across the record, which all suffer from this similar issue— at its worst, ‘Night Verses’ can be disconcertingly plain.

There are, of course, impressive moments scattered throughout the record— The Man-Eating Tree often reinvigorate themselves in the album’s more intense passages, which often feel the most inspired and daring. Single ‘Seer’ come rip-roaring out the gate with one of the gnarliest guitar riffs on the album and carries that momentum through both its crushing verses and anthemic chorus: ironically enough, it’s in these faster moments that the atmosphere-focused project has us most enthralled. Songs like ‘These Traces’ and ‘To The Sinking’ manage to pull-together a string of infectious ideas by the time they draw to a close, often catching themselves right as we’d otherwise reach for the skip button: between the former’s punishing bridge riffs and the latter’s dissonant, doom metal-esque climax, ‘Night Verses’ manages to salvage just enough strong material to keep us invested. The Man-Eating Tree even pull off some thoroughly impressive melodies at times: of note is standout cut ‘Ruins of Insanity,’ which houses all of the most memorable and inspiring top-lines of the pack (and some intense lyrical images to boot).

“You say my world is crumbling down on me again

You want to be the only one remaining”

Though ‘Night Verses’ is not a particularly long album (clocking in at less than fifty minutes), the prospect of a front-to-back listen feels nonetheless daunting— though The Man-Eating Tree are certainly capable of crafting moments of wonder, it’s not a feat they pull off consistently. Manne Ikonen’s clean vocals thoroughly underwhelm across the album, giving a performance that stands squarely within the realm of ‘satisfactory’ and never even attempts to leave— a similar mundanity pervades the various guitar and bass tones of the album, which all feel so well-rounded as to become uninteresting. Though ‘Night Verses’ balances these layers very well, its weakest moments (like the ho-hum balladry of ‘To the Sinking’ or the highly forgettable ‘Abandoned’) are left out to dry.

The return of The Man-Eating Tree is both triumphant and underwhelming. The band have crafted some of their most promising tunes to date on this record, and there’s no doubt that fans will be delighted with the likes of ‘Seer’ and ‘Ruins of Insanity.’ Great swathes of this record continue to leave us cold though, as ‘Night Verses’ spends 80% of its runtime wandering towards the 20% worth checking out. If the band can capitalise on the best ideas here and run with them, we may see something very promising from The Man-Eating Tree in the coming years: if the group’s focus on atmosphere continues to deliver such meandering results though, we might be sitting the next record out.