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Forming in 2022, Finland's Victimarum quickly set to work on upholding the sterling standards of their nation's underground black metal scene. A demo and an EP followed the next year, the latter including a Horna cover, which indeed underlines the lineage from which they spring: cold and yet intensely melodic, "freezing fire" of a most early 2000s vintage. Those who know already know the names, and it's a banner still worth raising.

And Victimarum raise it even higher with their full-length debut, Seitsemän soihdun valossa. With strength & honor and Satanic black devotion, the quartet here unload nine screeds of melancholic misery set to speeding stun. Incensed but not without a certain sense of ragged glory, Victimarum uphold that iron-clad template set out by their forebears and bolster it with strong songwriting and even-stronger execution. The sounds may be familiar, but as the album plays on, the Finns' personality shines through, with deft shifts in tempo and a slightly-more-pronounced propensity for the climatic coming to the fore. Likewise, Victimarum wisely locate a production style that's on the right side of polished, the grit coming not through the sound itself but rather through the playing: you FEEL this, every second of its 44-minute runtime.

Limited digipak CD in o-card.

Portugal's hottest black metal act Gaerea once again leaves nothing to be desired with their album Loss, which will be released in March 2026.

The finest black metal with a modern sound and high recognition value.

Get ready for one of the black metal highlights of the year!