Bestial Summoning ‎(NLD) – The Dark War Has Begun LP

Black Metal

Lunar Spells is a Greek black metal band formed in Athens in 2020, by Cryptic (guitar, vocals, synths), K.C.H (bass) and V.T (drums). Both musically and lyrically, Lunar Spells stays close to the roots of  Scandinavian “old school” black metal. Lyrical subjects thus often deal with darkness, depression, misanthropy and hate. After their first EP recording Medieval Shadows from an Ancient Netherworld (2020), the line-up was augmented by Atxak on vocals, and the group recorded their debut full length album Where Silence Whispers.

Black Metal

Emerging from the void of black devotion, Vampirska, The U.S.-based Raw Black Metal entity offers two of it’s most decrepit hymns yet. Walls of overwhelming chaos and depravity with the essence of mysterious and punishing raw black metal that emits an enchanting hypnoticism. The bombardment of devastation is met with another familiar entity of the grotesque and disgusting chambers; Wampyric Rites, the Ecuadorian spectre of the Black Metal Plague Circle. A two-part deliverance of malevolance and agony that call forth an intense massacre of total hatred and suffering. The conspiracy of these two entities brings four summonings to be unleashed onto the hordes.

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

Building upon that grand fortress is a four-song/22-minute mini-album likewise truly titled: The Oath of the Black Wolf. Here, ORGREL have gone a-hunting, their ’90s black metal classicism stalking and striking with a hunger only hinted at previously. Still, fueled by this fire they may be, the Italians across this mini manage to maximize their epic side, with the predecessor’s flat-yet-full soundfield now becoming slightly more chromatic in the process. Lead lines portend dark truths, ever building in tension and then grandeur, but the record’s swift-yet-satisfying runtime reveals the darkest, most intrinsic truth: black metal doesn’t need to “become” anything when it already IS. Hail The Oath of the Black Wolf!

Black Metal

One of the most accomplished newcomers Signal Rex has come across in recent years, the shadowy entity of Valais burst from the voidal womb fully formed in the middle of 2021 with their self-titled debut album. Despite existing in the vast (and vastly inconsistent) wilderness of Bandcamp, Valais in fact imparted a power and poignancy that takes most bands at least a couple records to reach, if at all. Both classically composed and forward-thinking, Valais understood right from the start the core tenets of true black metal, but equally understood how to inject their own personality and poise into such to create something that adds to the language of BLACK METAL rather than mimics its speech patterns (and sloppily so).

No, Valais as a work is a towering monument of tension and release, skillful contours and subtle dynamics, richly malevolent melody and slipstreaming violence. Aesthetic touchstones include the likes of Slidhr, latter-day Leviathan, and even Blut Aus Nord at their wiliest, but Valais also exhibit an understated sense of the pagan – perhaps stemming from their native Ireland, or perhaps from some strange cosmos far beyond our comprehension… Either way, all of this coalesces into a whilrlwinding five-song/37-minute experience that feels far vaster than that succinct runtime otherwise suggests. As such, Signal Rex is honored to rightfully release this tome in all physical formats.