Black Metal

rom their demos in the late ’90s to the fever of work from 2016 onward, this Finnish entity has created a vast and magickal world like no other. Naturally, it should come as no surprise given that mainman V-Khaoz is an incredibly prolific veteran of the black metal underground for over 25 years now, and concurrently numbers the likes of VARGRAV, EMBRYONIC SLUMBER, and GRIEVE among his endeavors. With DRUADAN FOREST, however, the emphasis has always been on atmosphere and its transportative qualities. Whether the medium is ominous, titanic-gait black metal, cosmic ambient, pure dungeon synth, or some symbiosis of those, it matters not: the story – and the voyage – from this realm to another is paramount.

Black Metal

By now, DRUADAN FOREST should require little introduction. From their demos in the late ’90s to the fever of work from 2016 onward, this Finnish entity has created a vast and magickal world like no other. Naturally, it should come as no surprise given that mainman V-Khaoz is an incredibly prolific veteran of the black metal underground during the past 25 years, and concurrently numbers the likes of VARGRAV, EMBRYONIC SLUMBER, and GRIEVE among his endeavors. With DRUADAN FOREST, however, the emphasis has always been on atmosphere and its transportative qualities. Whether the medium is ominous, titanic-gait black metal, cosmic ambient, pure dungeon synth, or some symbiosis of those, it matters not: the story – and the voyage – from this realm to another is paramount.

Black Metal

Hailing from Finland, while EMBRYONIC SLUMBER may be a brand-new entity in name, the duo are longtime veterans of the underground: VARGRAV / DRUADAN FOREST mainman V-Khaoz and Hellwind Inferion, an incredibly prolific drummer but more recently known as the vocalist for both Sargeist and Desolate Shrine. And while what they create together as EMBRYONIC SLUMBER may show slight shades of their collective pasts, the resulting recording – the full-length In Worship Our Blood is Buried, the band’s bolt-from-the-blue debut – handily transcends comparisons altogether.

Comes with poster and insert

Black Metal

Titled Outojen Tornien Varjoissa, FAUSTIAN PACT’s full-length debut is the grand culmination of all the gloriously bewitching work they brewed across that trio of demos. Exploding with an effervescence that’s addicting and undeniable, their swords-aloft attack surges and swells, crests and cascades. At the forefront are stained-glass synths whisked from a time – and a fantastical landscape – far, FAR away, sumptuously underlining their heroic/romantic style of black metal deeply steeped in a nostalgic past. Across the album’s 41 minute (fantastical) landscape are spread lyrics of splendorous mythology, swords & sorcery, vast forgotten realms brought to life through wily, wanderlusting black metal betraying a noble melodicism. FAUSTIAN PACT are thus a unique balance of contrasts: orkish energy vs. mystical atmosphere, dungeon rawness vs. castle-top aristocracy, obsidian darkness vs. gleaming light. So, whether 25 years ago or 2500, removed by a reality or two, Outojen Tornien Varjoissa is timeless BLACK METAL MAGICK – dark medieval times have at last arrived!

Black Metal

Both triumphant and melancholic, violent and resigned, hysteric and finessed, Queen of Frost brazenly displayed the full swathe of FUNERAL FROST’s considerable arsenal. With a raw-yet-robust soundfield neither dampening nor exaggerating any of their dynamics, here did the Swedish trio spelunk in dungeons and raze battlefields alike, their screaming-into-the-nightsky sound surprisingly medieval and moody. Likewise, compared to so many of their blastbeating-all-the-time contemporaries, FUNERAL FROST shifted speeds often and never lingered too long in one, with the drums in particular ringing with authentically analog clarity. Add to this a subtle daubing of synths and Queen of Frost stands as a crucial tome for those into classic Arckanum, Kvist, Sorhin, and Norway’s Perished.

Black Metal

In 2017, GOATMOON truly etched its name its Finnish black metal legendry with Stella Polaris, a monument of cosmic, snow-capped majesty. The entirely dungeon synth Silver Serpent followed in 2021, but now arrives GOATMOON’s full-length return to black metal with What Once Was… Shall Be Again. As presaged by its title, there’s an undeniably yearning and nostalgic aspect to the band’s characteristically epic ruminations, occasionally/often dusted by folkloric synths. But if one were to assume that What Once Was… Shall Be Again would further continue that refinement – and indeed, in large part, it does – the album equally takes GOATMOON back to their earliest, rawest roots, here temped by the steely-eyed austerity of older age and wisdom. It’s a skillful balance pulled off with aplomb, proving that the band honor their history but rarely repeat themselves. And more than anything, it provides another dazzling new canvas on which warriors and dreamers can explore…but no safe spaces here, of course. No other words necessary: What Once Was… Shall Be Again!

Black Metal

GRIEVE have arisen from their own self-imposed grave with the second full-length Wolves of the Northern Moon. “We said we’d end the project for good, but we lied,” state the band about that grave. “We exhumed it.” Indeed, the exhumation also includes a nastiness last found on such Nordic classics as Kronet til konge, Pentagram, Til evighet…, or even Black Thrash Attack. Essentially, then, GRIEVE’s ethics have not changed (nor should they have to), but one can nonetheless find here a pronounced asskicking sensibility that adds further antagonization to trendy ears as well as a noble march to mystical victories. “Eternal Winter, Eternal War”: These Wolves of the Northern Moon are on the hunt – and you’re next!

Black Metal

It was but November 2018 when MORGAL fully burst onto the international scene with their self-titled EP for WEREWOLF. At the time, two of their members were not yet even into their 20s, which perhaps explains the exceptionally foul electricity coursing through the 15 shock & awe minutes of Morgal. And despite that young age, MORGAL brazenly exuded the ageless wisdom of true black METAL – so ageless, in fact, that you’d be forgiven for mistaking that EP as the work of very old men. Alas, Morgal was hailed far and wide by all who heard it, and the fever pitch for their true debut album has only grown in intensity.