Vesperian Sorrow - Awaken the Greylight (2024)

Our favorite North American Symphonic Black Metal band, Vesperian Sorrow, is finally back with the excellent “Awaken the Greylight”. Being the band’s six full-length, and after shedding/gaining a few new members since their last one, we were afraid this one would suck. However, we are glad to be completely wrong as this release delivers 54 minutes of some of their finest music to date.

The release quickly explodes with “As The Pillars Were Raised”, a very typical track for the band thanks to its intense drumming and dramatic keyboards, something not surprising as Christopher Nunez still handles those duties in this release. The interesting part comes with the soaring clean vocals that alternate between the harsh one, giving the band a certain Mercenary-esque edge, thanks to new vocalist, Orlando Logan Olivero, tracks like “Antediluvian - Proceeding the Unshaping”, “An Epistle to the Prime, Vivified”, and “Traverse The Vorthonian Passage” have an even more epic vibe to them.

Interestingly enough the band’s sound explores more Melodic Death/Black Metal territories with pieces like “A Dire Flight for the Black Fragment”, even having a Dethklok edge to them. However, the band’s ‘old-school’ sound is always present on songs like “Seek the Last Priestess of Tyyk” and “They Beheld the Chainbreaker’s Unwonted Defiance”, nicely creating an interesting evolution and further refinement of their style.

As the album closes with songs like “The Excilion Ontogenesis” and “Awaken the Greylight”, we love their Agathodaimon/Graveworm influences, creating a very diverse and engaging sound. Over the years Vesperian Sorrow has constantly delivered high-quality releases and this one is another winner. The band has incorporated their new members well into their style and continues to push the boundaries of their sound, keeping things nicely heavy, melodic and symphonic.

Label: Black Lion Records

Release: April 26th, 2024

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Country: USA