Vemod - The Deepening (2024)

Unleashing a mesmerizing first release in over a decade, Vemod delivers nearly 50 minutes of highly dynamic and engaging Atmospheric Black Metal. With parallels to Agalloch, Fen and similar artists, there are six lush tracks in this release with plenty of memorable passages and arrangements. Far from straightforward and predictable, this album is surely going to make plenty of best of 2024 releases.

After the mood setting intro, “Der guder dør” fiercely delivers incisive riffs alongside a very hypnotic tempo and masterful vocal arrangements. Creating a very powerful and demoralizing atmosphere, the band perfectly weaves dramatic instrumental passages with more aggressive and brutal onslaughts. With an even stronger pace, “True North Beckons” has a certain Borknagar in the “Olden Domain” days vibe mixed in with a more modern Blackgaze edge to it, and even some jazziness is thrown into the mix.

Splitting the release in half, we have “Fra drømmenes bok I” a dark and folky vocal-only piece that perfectly leads way to the magical “Inn i lysende natt”. This release has an even more polished mixture of Blackgaze elements with psychedelic splashes, creating a very unique and at times even Western-ish sounding piece. Saving the most dense and intoxicating piece for last, “The Deepening” perfectly blends in all the innovation and genre-reconfiguration the band has concocted as their sound. This track is both lush, disarming, as it goes through moody valleys and cathartic moments.

Overall, “The Deepening” is one hell of a magical release that while it captivates on the first listen, it truly unravels as special the more times you listen to it. While Vemod set a very high standard with their 2012 release, this album completely blows all expectations away and delivers one of the best releases we have heard in quite a while. If you like Black Metal that is heavily atmospheric and experimental, this is a release you can’t miss out on.

Label: Prophecy Productions

Release: January 19th, 2024

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal

Country: Norway