Black Metal

  • Ihsahn - Ihsahn (2024)

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    Delivering his most ambitious album to date, today we have Ihsahn and his eponymous release, the eight full-length album of his solo career. After a couple of EP’s in between releases, Ihsahn blends cinematic orchestrations with his already quite refined and yet constantly evolving Proggy Black Metal. Featuring both a ‘Metal’ version, and a purely orchestral version, this release is quite the musical journey and a stop above the excellent quality we always expect from Ihsahn.

    After the mood setting orchestral opening, “The Promethean Spark” brings us back to more familiar territories with crafty tempo changes and Ihsahn’s signature mixture of clean and harsh vocals alongside playful riffs. While the ‘Metal’ side of things is familiar, the interplay with the classical instrument arrangements is quite engaging and intoxicating. Tracks like “Pilgrimage to Oblivion” and the lush “Twice Born”, showcase a very unique blend of heaviness with fragility and a splash of vibrancy that is rare to find in Metal.

  • Hulder - Verses In Oath (2024)

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    After taking the scene by surprise with their crushing 2021 debut full-length “Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry”, Hulder returns with a more refined and equally brutal release with “Verses In Oath”. With over 40 minutes of music, this release is packed with powerful atmospherics, crafty execution, and very engaging tempo changes that keep the songs fresh and sinister.

    Blasting away with the piercing “Boughs Ablaze”, you immediately feel the band's firepower with pummeling drumming, fierce riffing, and subtle atmospheric keyboards. These elements create a very unique European Black Metal vibe, that merges Folky melodies with raw power. The production, while raw and direct, is clean and effective, keeping the band’s sound intense while being tidy, perfect examples of this are “Verses In Oath”, “Cast Into The Well Of Remembrance”.

  • Borknagar - Fall (2024)

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    After blowing everybody away with their 2019 release “True North”, Borknagar is back stronger and even catchier than ever. The band has always distinguished themselves as one of those Folk/Viking/Black Metal with signature Progressive and melodic elements, and with “Fall”, the band takes them even further. If you like any of the band’s previous releases, this one has a bit of everything from all their stylistic changes over the years.

    Opening with the epic “Summits”, this track has all the Borknagar staples: soaring clean and harsh vocals, crafty drumming, proggy guitars, and atmospheric magic. As the first single of this release, the band fires in all cylinders and creates a very powerful and dynamic atmosphere. As you can expect the deadly combination of clean vocals from both Lars and Vortex, makes this band the equivalent of having two of the best players, of any sport, on the same team.

  • Olhava - Sacrifice (2024)

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    Perfectly balancing fragility and raw aggression, today we have Olhava and their latest opus “Sacrifice”. Featuring members of Trna, this duo unleashes eight tracks clocking in at nearly 87 minutes of music. Filled with magical soundscapes and crafty songwriting ideas, this album is highly intoxicating. Recommended for fans of bands like An Autumn for Crippled Children, Heretoir, Show Me a Dinosaur, etc. this release is quite dreamy and hypnotic.

    Opening with the sixteen minute “Forever With You”, the band sets a very atmospheric and immersive mood with lush keyboards alongside a wall of distortion. Setting the mood between the album’s longer tracks, we have a number of enigmatic atmospheric instrumentals called “Ageless River VI-IX”. These tracks provide a nice and varied transition between the more cathartic and crushing pieces.

  • Funeral Winds - 333 (2024)

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    Delivering a swift and brutal onslaught of pummeling rawness, today we have Funeral Winds with “333”. Featuring eight tracks and nearly 40 minutes of music, this album is not for the faint of heart as it is as raw and punishing as they come. Almost releasing one album every year after their long hiatus between 2007 and 2018, Hellchrist Xul keeps things powerful and down to basics.

  • Vemod - The Deepening (2024)

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    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.

  • White Death - Iconoclast (2023)

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    Closing 2023 with a fierce and punishing Black Metal release, today we have Finland’s White Death and their scorcher album “Iconoclast”. Six years or so in the making, this release unleashes 48 minutes of frosty old-school Finnish Black Metal. Filled with piercing vocals, ravaging riffs, and an overall all-out-war vibe, this release is definitely one of the best in the genre.

    Blasting away with the raw power of “Born from the Unholy Fire (Part II)”, vocalist Vritrahn delivers some of the most savage and punishing harsh vocals in the business. The vocals are greatly complemented by crafty guitars that weave between pummeling aggressive passages to more engaging and melodic territories, as songs like “Iconoclast” and “Sumum Bestiae” showcase. For those of us fans of Finnish Black Metal like Horna, Satanic Warmaster, etc., this band is sweet, sweet music to our ears.

  • Vargrav - The Nighthold (2023)

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    Capitalizing on the success of Vargrav’s first two releases, “Reign in Supreme Darkness” and “Netherstorm”, mastermind V-KhaoZ moves this outfit from a solo project to a band. In “The Nighthold”, we get a more evolved version of this Finish outfit with a gnarly old-school BM vibe to come along. While still delivering for the people waiting for 90’s Symphonic BM, the band goes the extra mile in crafting a release that is engaging and diverse and not just a rehash of their earlier epic releases and yet has that signature Vargrav sound to it.

    Opening with “Moonless Abyss of the Nighthold” and “Through the Woods of Breathing Shadows” we get that dreamy Symphonic BM fix that we were looking for, but also find a harsher and frostier edge to the band’s sound. The addition of Graf Werwolf von Armageddon (Satanic Warmaster fame) on vocals, and members of Finntroll and Moonsorrow on bass and drums, gives this release a more polished and well crafted instrumental edge.

  • One Master - The Name of Power (2023)

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    After some years of so-so USBM releases, 2023 was packed with pretty epic stuff, including One Master’s “The Name of Power”. As the band’s first full-length release in six years, this gritty and punishing release nicely evolves the band’s sound while keeping them high up in the rankings as of the best Black Metal outfits in the USA. Pouring 54 minutes of ravaging and destructive music, Valder and company do not fuck around and bring tons of attitude and power to the table with this one.

    Quickly setting an uncompromising and relentless wall of sound, “The First Names” and “The Forbidden Names” deliver waves of punishing riffs nicely flanked by intense drumming and crushing vocals. The band’s raw and stripped down production creates a very powerful effect, giving the music that unfiltered sound that live performances have. With minimal atmospherics and ritualistic change of tempos, tracks like “The Secret Names” keep the release engaging and far from linear.

  • Délétère - Songes d'une nuit souillée (2023)

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    Unleashing a punishing exercise in Black Metal brilliance, Quebec’s Délétère delivers “Songes d'une Nuit Souillée”. As their first full-length release in five years, the band unravels 42 minutes and eight tracks of high-octane Black Metal filled with eerie atmospherics and incisive melodic undertones. If you like bands like Algazanth, Sargeist, Seth, and everything in between this is the release for you.

    Blasting away with the ravaging “Chasse obscène”, the band quickly delivers waves of incisive guitar riffing alongside pummeling drums and hellish vocals. Particularly the interplay between melodic passages, ominous atmospherics and the choral arrangements create a unique and devilish atmosphere. This atmosphere is perfectly preserved as “Sacre de la perversion”, “Foutredieu”, and “Messe scandaleuse” roll around.

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