Black Metal

From the dawn of the classic debut album, Netherstorm, in 2018, Finland’s VARGRAV have almost single-handedly reinvigorated the oft-maligned symphonic black metal subgenre. Forged in fires from the ancients – founder V-Khaoz’s credentials are vast and stretch back decades – and stoking the embers last left by Obtained Enslavement and Norway’s Covenant and Odium, VARGRAV’s two albums to date stand as proud pillars of shimmering, classics-based obsidian.

As momentous as those two full-lengths have been, VARGRAV arguably eclipse both with their third album, The Nighthold. With a lineup that now includes the notorious Graf Werwolf von Armageddon on vocals and Moonsorrow members Trollhorn of the Black Harvest on guitars/bass and Baron M. Tarwonen on drums, VARGRAV’s swirling, cosmic surge has never been more potent; their attack is both sharper and dreamier, crystal-clear and opaque simultaneously. That added clarity creates more immediacy as The Nighthold kicks in, for the aggression of old is kicked into overdrive here and the synths take on a truly orchestral aspect. It’s not for nothing that the album is a full hour in length: everything here sounds (and feels) HUGE, one massive velvety purple landscape of stained-glass visions as far as the third eye can see. And all 12 tracks are threaded together in a plausibly cinematic manner; while each is mighty in its own respective right, VARGRAV sequence every song with artistic flair and high drama, concluding the immersive experience with a daresay-soulful guitar solo during the coda of “Creator of the True Realm” that then segues into the nearly-10-minute big-screen instrumental “Ghostlands.” What film or filmic realm one enters into (or leaves) is entirely up to the listener…The Nighthold is boundless!

Black Metal

WEREWOLF RECORDS is proud to present VARGRAV’s highly anticipated debut album, “Netherstorm.” Hailing from Finland, the band originated during starless nights in late 2015. As the vision calmly evolved and the cloak of obscurity relinquished, VARGRAV was chosen to be illuminating sign for this act of black arts. During the formative years, the music also transmitted into a profound abyss, only to reincarnate as a sinister glow of the black flame. A demo version of the album was then unleashed during the summer of 2016, and after numerous contacts from different labels, WEREWOLF RECORDS was immediately chosen to be the most suitable collaborator with which to work. That album, now bearing the ominous and apt title of Netherstorm, is a blizzard-blown blast from the ancient past. “Symphonic black metal” may be a dirty word to some still, but back in simpler, more idealistic times, that appellation bore delicious fruit, and many long-cherished classics of the black metal canon have upheld that banner; more specifically, once upon a time, it was simply BLACK METAL. VARGRAV bear witness to this fact, and create a swarming, densely layered maelstrom of medieval majesty and moonlit madness. Tangibly physical without sacrificing the finer nuances of synth layering, Netherstorm sweeps grandly across a cobwebbed landscape, distant ruins becoming the very listener’s landscape. It’s truly timeless magick, evoking the visionary works of old Obtained Enslavement, Dimmu Borgir, Abigor, Limbonic Art, and especially early Emperor, whose “Ancient Queen” is covered on the bonus 7″ which comes with the vinyl LP pressing of Netherstorm. The overture of a black-hearted storm has been sung and what has yet left uncovered shall be conquered…

Black Metal

After a split with Warmoon Lord, here the debut album of Vultyrium.

Medieval, barbaric and vicious Metal for all warriors of darkness.

Black Metal

For a decade now, Finland’s WHITE DEATH have built a small-yet-formidable canon of work that’s come to define modern underground black metal in their nation. It’s no secret that Finland has possessed one of the most potent black metal scenes from the early ’90s onward, and with each new generation that picks up the torch, some are contenders and others are just content to uphold “the Finnish sound.” WHITE DEATH took their time with deploying demos and then their debut album, simply self-titled, but they occupied a unique position between those poles: steeped in noble tradition, but exuding a confidence and charisma that rendered White Death an exceptionally nasty work even with its considerably cleaner production. Three years of silence followed between the release of that debut album and the three-song Promo 2020, which included an Enochian Crescent cover – an inspired choice from an oft-unsung legend, and a portent of grandeur to come.

Black Metal

The bats having flown the belfry, YMIR continue their pillage of the present with the second album Aeons of Sorrow. Driving deeper into the past, Vrasjarn unfurls a comparatively more melodic and nuanced record that’s icier and, daresay, more beautiful. Here, he’s joined by the always-commanding presence of Corvus on vocals and prolific veteran drummer VnoM, with bass by True Black Dawn’s Syphon and additional synths by Tyranny’s Agathul – a crucial component of the mesmerizing tapestry of Aeons of Sorrow. To step into the album’s landscape is to imbue the spiritual essence, the psychic sensations, the all-enveloping ATMOSPHERE of 1995. Quiet castles, ice-capped mountains, beastly blizzards, infinite darkness, capes and swords and chainmail: while seemingly innocuous “triggers” for those who don’t breathe that essence – or worse, mere items of mockery – they serve as the textural touchstones for bands like YMIR and records like Aeons of Sorrow, both in increasingly short supply no matter what the internet might tell you. And yet, with the skillfully unselfconscious songwriting on display here, the album adds to that noble tradition rather than listlessly pecking at its remains.

Black Metal

YMIR’s history stretches back to the late ’90s. The band originally existed as a trio of vocalist/guitarist Vrasjarn, later of funeral doomlords Profetus; drummer Lord Sargofagian, who concurrently founded the prolific Baptism; and lead guitarist Toni Pšlkki. With this lineup, YMIR released the Trollsword demo in 1999, mystical black metal firmly (and favorably) of its time. Seven more years would follow before another recording came from YMIR, as the brothers Vrasjarn and Lord Sargofagian were busy with the aforementioned bands (and many others), but the Silvery Howling demo at last arrived in 2006, courtesy of WEREWOLF, and saw the band scaled back to a duo and evincing a rawer, nastier sound whilst retaining the sweet stench of the ’90s. Naturally, once again, more silence ensued…