Black Metal

After 2019’s well-received Endless Trails demo via SIGNAL REX, HOLLOW WOODS strike with a full-length debut fittingly titled Cold Winds Cleave the Earth. While hailing from Finland, this mysterious entity largely eschew their homeland’s reigning black metal idiom, instead taking influence from Ukraine (Roman Saenko’s projects), Norway (early Ulver, equally early Gorgoroth), and especially Russia (the Blazebirth Hall collective). In other words, pure & proud BLACK METAL, nevertheless done with personality and charisma.

Black Metal

Since their emergence in 2011, HOUSE OF ATREUS have become one of the most singular hordes to hail from North American soil during that time. Across a demo, an EP, and two successive full-lengths, the Minnesota natives have patiently and painstakingly crafted death metal of a most epic order. A veritable riff-machine, HOUSE OF ATREUS are powered by the Greek tragedies and have that very same tragedy (as well as triumph) coursing through their rough ‘n’ rugged veins. Theirs is a sound unapologetically influenced by the ancient Hellenic legends Varathron and Rotting Christ as well as other singular riff-machines like Grand Belial’s Key and Arghoslent, and the earliest and most blackened works of Running Wild. However, HOUSE OF ATREUS handily transcend these influences, as evidenced by their critically acclaimed second album, From the Madness of Ixion, released in 2018 by IRON BONEHEAD. Truly, the quartet managed to add to this glorious lineage rather than merely bottom-feed off it.

Black Metal

“Bag Skyggernes Slør”, meaning “Behind the Veil of Shadows” is Í Myrkri’s third conjuration. A lyrical and musical descend awaits through the night, into the depths of the unknown, the unfathomable and the uncertain. A dark journey through the grip of celestial powers, hopelessness in darkness and ultimately letting go of fear and embracing the inevitable end, beyond the veil.

Black Metal

Judiciously prizing quality over quantity, Ifrinn return with yet another release, this time titled Caledonian Black Magick. Indeed an ever-apt description of the hypnotic rhythms created by Ifrinn – and one this constellation has established since the beginning – Caledonian Black Magick is both an intensification and consolidation of its no-less-considerable predecessor. Here, the attack is sharpened to an enviable degree, finesse meeting fury headlong, as each catacomb-esque creation expands onward and outward. The vortex of sound Ifrinn create across this EP is akin to levitational hypnosis: undeniably physical in its approach, sometimes overwhelmingly so, but a paralysis of subconscious and spirit that’s paradoxically liberating and intoxicating. Despite its Highland origins, Ifrinn are without geography nor era; authentic black metal orthodoxy knows no boundaries, and its windswept splendor is timeless.