Purity Through Fire

Norway's ILDFAR are something of an enigma. The band formed all the way back in 1994, by vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Favn, but left behind only one demo in 2003. However, upon reactivating in 2018, ILDFAR began blazing a trail of ancient-days Norse black metal with a quick succession of albums. So pure, so cold, this trio of records landed on such esteemed labels as Northern Silence and Wolfspell, but now under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE, ILDFAR are prepared to blaze a new "old" trail.

Witness Der ligger et land. Immediately, ILDFAR's fourth album distinguishes itself with the much-more-measured mid-tempo pace and, most strikingly, largely clean vocals. However, before any worries of a slackening of black metal ethos arise, one need only listen to Der ligger et land to understand that Favn is picking up the torch left behind by Isengard's Høstmørke and expanding the (old, icy) canvas in compellingly new ways. To be sure, there's plenty of ILDFAR's previous, strictly-Norse fire here - just the recording alone evokes a solemn nostalgia for those forgotten realms - but Favn is stretching apart those sensations in a manner that's mystical, mesmerizing, and AMAZING. ​Also to be sure, there've been other sympatico souls who've likewise reinvigorated Isengard's template - ​namely, the axis of LIK, Lönndom, and Ehlder as well as Sweden's stalwart Grift - but ILDFAR's songwriting here is noticeably more melodic, utilizing clean(er) guitars to stunning effect, and overall textures that suggest stargazing rather than forest-roaming. 

Whatever way you arrive at Der ligger et land, it's guaranteed you'll be possessed to press "play" over and over again, luxuriating deeper into those textures and finding ever more new details with each spin. In short, ILDFAR have delivered an unsuspecting masterpiece.

Formed in 2022, Finland's NACHTGNAWER have recorded a demo, a collaborative split with WulfSeer, and even a live album - but so far, a more extended record has not arrived. Nevertheless, their pedigree is substantial, numbering concurrent members of labelmates LICHT DES URTEILS, SACRIFICIUM CARMEN, RIIVAUS, CORAXUL, and NÔIDVA among others. As expected, NACHTGNAWER unfurl Finnish filth of a most millennial variety...but on evidence of the new mini-album Medieval Devourer, there's more to their charred cauldron than expected. For one, the "medieval" extension / appellation certainly applies here; for however restless and rabid their execution may be, there's an alternately melancholic / triumphant aspect to their riffing that suggests an acute understanding of France's notorious Concilium crew. For another, the haunting tubular-bells interlude "Process of Procession" splits the record into two equally satisfying halves, with the first bearing the bite of the vampiric - the aforementioned collaboration was titled Unholy Vampyric Supremacy, after all - and the latter melting into the heavy metal of the epic "Stench of the Ancient Towers" and the quick-hitting "Desecrator." What's more, NACHTGNAWER apply the subtlest of synth in spots, furthering underlining those ancient links. This is the Medieval Devourer!

Collaborative Ep by Tårfödd and Mörkvind.

The warrior suffers the loss of his beloved; a deep pain pierces him, and the wind of fate sweeps away all traces of happiness, carrying away even his clarity of mind.

Soon he descends into madness: the trolls of the forest whisper to him, and lost in his frenzy, he succumbs to a murderous rage.

The gods remain silent. Alone, in the frozen North and battered by a snowstorm, he finally hears the voice of Odin — tragic and relentless.

He bends to the snow, closes his eyes forever, finding in that silence both the god and death itself.

An album where i got the honor to work (on track 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6) with Revenant Noctis (Ger) from Sarkrista, Order of Nosferat, Velmorth and Siechknecht

In late 2024, AINZAMKAIT delivered their bolt-from-the-blue debut album, Was des Lebens nicht wert. The work of one Grymnir der Zornige, AINZAMKAIT's moniker is a linguistic twist on the German "Einsamkeit," which is loneliness in English - and fittingly, that's exactly what he delivered, offering a righteous new twist on Teutonic black metal.

Proving that was no fluke, AINZAMKAIT return under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE with Fluch des Nachzehrers. Sonically, on first blush, this second album is built upon the same foundation as the debut: riffs that are hypnotically melancholic yet also strangely triumphant, a slow-burning approach to pacing, and Grymnir der Zornige's full-throated rasp elevating everything safely beyond DSBM dross. However, where that first album conveyed a certain hooliganism latent to the best German black metal, here do AINZAMKAIT soar on cosmic wings high into the night, raised up on synths that are even more ethereal than that no-less-considerable debut; indeed, one need only translate this album's title as well as ponder the cover art to perceive their nocturnal trajectory. Strangely enough, the eight tracks comprising Fluch des Nachzehrers are more compact this time around but somehow sound even more expansive: the destination might be the same, but the route to get there has been altered slightly - and compellingly, vampirically so. With new drummer Geyst des Wüterichs likewise providing livelier color, AINZAMKAIT continue their noble march...the curse awakens!

A project of Ungod (SAD / NECROHELL/ BLOODMOON ECLIPSE) and Throne (HOR)
in the vein of BERGRIZEN, AASKEREIA

Formed in 2011 in Bergen, A.H.P. are something of a "dark horse" within Norwegian black metal: their sound isn't Norwegian Black Metal Exclusively, and band founder / songwriter Gulnar originally hails from Poland. However, being something an outlier has made A.H.P. all the more unique. From palatably varied songwriting to a more mechanistic soundwall, from tastefully unexpected cover-song choices to even-more-varied lineups, A.H.P. follow their own path, forged in fire, ice, and iron will.

Now, a full decade since their Against Human Plague debut album, A.H.P. return to reassert those unique virtues with Alltid Imot Deg. Comprising five songs in 41 minutes, A.H.P.'s second album is indeed more epic-minded than the first, each song creating a shapeshifting vortex where four separate vocalists narrate foul deeds and filthy states of the soul; among those guests are Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult's Onielar. Gulnar rises to the occasion with songwriting that's by turns stealthy, hypnotic, schizophrenic, and thuggish - but always, ALWAYS, is there an ever-building fountain of cold & crunching violence. That A.H.P.'s soundwall retains their elder Moonfoggy-mechanistic feel whilst emitting a sort of delirious humanity only makes Alltid Imot Deg all the more compelling - and, always again, all the more unique. Still, the best is saved for last with the 15-minute title track, which is an awe-inspiring maw of impossibly alluring darkness; you will DROWN in this. 

The actual Album plus the 4 songs from the 2010 Split release with Sapthuran.

Since 2005, Greece's SAD have been a madly prolific bastion of pure 'n' cold black metal. Their canon is vast and varied - VERY relatively so, given that this is all-caps BLACK METAL after all - with the longstanding duo of instrumentalist Ungod and vocalist Nadir exploring the darkest corridors of their souls every step of the way. They did so across a half-dozen albums for such esteemed labels as Drakkar, Obscure Abhorrence, and Old Temple among others as well as a dozen splits, but then joined forces with PURITY THROUGH FIRE in 2020 for the release of their seventh album, Misty Breath of Ancient Forests, and again in 2023 for Black Metal Craft.

Proudly remaining in the PURITY THROUGH FIRE stronghold, SAD return with their ninth(!) album, Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening. While its title might be something of an aesthetic misnomer - this is NOT bestial metal, thankfully - Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening does keep intact the nastiness of Black Metal Craft, making for a complementary record to its cantankerous predecessor. SAD here are characteristically unconcerned with anything in "black metal" during this millennium, still harkening to the glorious late '90s heyday of Sombre Records or the aforementioned Drakkar and yet tempered with the wisdom & resolve surely established by a band who've been around 25 years now. No more but definitely no less, Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening is raw & ripping orkishness shot through with a touch of the melancholic but all stirred malevolently, where hypnotic speed - cruise, gallop, headbang, or any combination thereof - often rights itself into something somewhat regal or at least triumphant. And just like that not-inconsiderable predecessor, SAD's ninth full-length similarly stretches toward the epic, encompassing eight songs in 55 minutes of righteous obsidian splendor. Cold, old, and still no surrender!

comes with an insert card and a poster size A2
galaxy grey vinyl

Black Vinyl

comes with a poster (size A2) and an insert with complete lyrics
 

Black Vinyl

From moniker to visual aesthetic and especially to the sonics themselves, HERALDIC BLAZE are encapsulating the oft-nebulous "medieval black metal" idiom with startling aplomb. While it's often difficult to discern exactly what medieval BM is other than a pithy "I know it when I hear it," HERALDIC BLAZE leave no doubt as to their intentions.

Witness their debut demo, Blazoned Heraldry. The duo of American multi-instrumentalist Argent Pale (vocals, bass, flute) and Norwegian guitarist Peregrinus (HJEMSØKT, SOLUS GRIEF, KVAD, UNHOLY CRAFT) create a spellbinding tapestry of rustic tones and textures. In fact, on texture alone - kinda clean and clanging, yet with more than a hint of ghostly grit and almost surfy reverb - HERALDIC BLAZE stand out, but it's how they utilize those textures in the service of songwriting: winding and wild, frothing up to an almost-dangerous delirium, but more often than not leaving wide-open spaces to let their medieval melodicism bend and sway with bravado and bittersweetness. And as actual flute flutters in from time to time, the sum effect, more often than not, is ALIEN - unsettling and alluring in equal measure.

While "merely" a demo recording, HERALDIC BLAZE's first work already trounces most modern works of "black metal." Unorthodox and unbound, Blazoned Heraldry is mandatory listening for fans of Sühnopfer, Ungfell, Grylle, Heltekvad, and particularly mid-2000s Peste Noire.

Begun in 2004, BARDITUS is a studio & live project of Uwe Nolte, from the cult Orplid. In 2021, after nearly two decades since the first two initial EPs, Nolte revived the project together with Anti-Christian from Stern des Bundes. While Orplid's sound is somewhere between neofolk and neoclassical, with themes ranging from Germanic paganism and Greek mythology to the Christian symbolism of the early Middle Ages and natural romanticism, here with BARDITUS do the duo explore a sound somewhere between paradigmatic neofolk and black metal - or even "acoustic black metal," if you will. And while in Orplid the occidental bastion was defended with the quill, BARDITUS take up the sword and unconditionally profess heroism and love. Now BARDITUS raise that sword highest with their long-awaited debut album, Nibelungentreue. Comprising 14 songs in nearly an hour, Nibelungentreue is everything - and much more - adherents could've hoped for in a BARDITUS full-length. Presaged by 2023's Dein Schwert mini-album, BARDITUS' debut album exudes a parallel passion and power that will be readily recognizable to fans of Orplid, with the pastoral-on-the-surface acoustics joined in their soon-to-be-bubbling-over frenzy by sharp shards of rowdy pagan black metal. And while the latter isn't as prevalent here as on its short-length predecessor, Nibelungentreue's more Spartan soundfield is imbued with even-greater depth: in addition to verses written by Nolte himself, a text of the contemporary poet Rolf Schilling is set to music, and guest performances include Ian Read of the esteemed Fire & Ice and Freya Aswynn, who is a Dutch-born writer and practitioner whose influential works on runes, magic, and a women-centered form of Germanic neopaganism have significantly shaped the modern pagan community worldwide. BARDITUS thus collide bathos and pathos, and harness their most power when the intensity dips - solitude and repose reverberating within the soul of the ancients. Erwache!

Earlier this spring, SCHEUSAL released their debut album, Urwahn, under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Raising those banners again, the so-far-mysterious entity strikes while the iron's red-hot with Fressfeind. Thankfully, not much has changed here on this second full-length. Pure 'n' proud Teutonic black metal is still the order of the day, but just like Urwahn did so stridently, Fressfeind further twists SCHEUSAL's unique iteration of German steel. Maybe going the martial-folkish direction more thoroughly, maybe running routes that are even more restless - whatever headspace you enter Fressfeind, the one-man band goes for the fucking throat, mischievous as ever. Indeed, that apt descriptor encompasses the mainman's vocals again, as the same crew of characters - the screamer, the shouter, the hooligan, the imp, the devil - all fight for breath here on this ever-shifting landscape. That landscape is painted with a production that's raw and rotten and yet somehow crisp and crystalline, making these nine screeds of mania all the more absurdly engaging and antagonizing.

Since 2005, Greece's SAD have been a madly prolific bastion of pure 'n' cold black metal. Their canon is vast and varied - VERY relatively so, given that this is all-caps BLACK METAL after all - with the longstanding duo of instrumentalist Ungod and vocalist Nadir exploring the darkest corridors of their souls every step of the way. They did so across a half-dozen albums for such esteemed labels as Drakkar, Obscure Abhorrence, and Old Temple among others as well as a dozen splits, but then joined forces with PURITY THROUGH FIRE in 2020 for the release of their seventh album, Misty Breath of Ancient Forests, and again in 2023 for Black Metal Craft.

Proudly remaining in the PURITY THROUGH FIRE stronghold, SAD return with their ninth(!) album, Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening. While its title might be something of an aesthetic misnomer - this is NOT bestial metal, thankfully - Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening does keep intact the nastiness of Black Metal Craft, making for a complementary record to its cantankerous predecessor. SAD here are characteristically unconcerned with anything in "black metal" during this millennium, still harkening to the glorious late '90s heyday of Sombre Records or the aforementioned Drakkar and yet tempered with the wisdom & resolve surely established by a band who've been around 25 years now. No more but definitely no less, Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening is raw & ripping orkishness shot through with a touch of the melancholic but all stirred malevolently, where hypnotic speed - cruise, gallop, headbang, or any combination thereof - often rights itself into something somewhat regal or at least triumphant. And just like that not-inconsiderable predecessor, SAD's ninth full-length similarly stretches toward the epic, encompassing eight songs in 55 minutes of righteous obsidian splendor. Cold, old, and still no surrender!

From moniker to visual aesthetic and especially to the sonics themselves, HERALDIC BLAZE are encapsulating the oft-nebulous "medieval black metal" idiom with startling aplomb. While it's often difficult to discern exactly what medieval BM is other than a pithy "I know it when I hear it," HERALDIC BLAZE leave no doubt as to their intentions.

Witness their debut demo, Blazoned Heraldry. The duo of American multi-instrumentalist Argent Pale (vocals, bass, flute) and Norwegian guitarist Peregrinus (HJEMSØKT, SOLUS GRIEF, KVAD, UNHOLY CRAFT) create a spellbinding tapestry of rustic tones and textures. In fact, on texture alone - kinda clean and clanging, yet with more than a hint of ghostly grit and almost surfy reverb - HERALDIC BLAZE stand out, but it's how they utilize those textures in the service of songwriting: winding and wild, frothing up to an almost-dangerous delirium, but more often than not leaving wide-open spaces to let their medieval melodicism bend and sway with bravado and bittersweetness. And as actual flute flutters in from time to time, the sum effect, more often than not, is ALIEN - unsettling and alluring in equal measure.

While "merely" a demo recording, HERALDIC BLAZE's first work already trounces most modern works of "black metal." Unorthodox and unbound, Blazoned Heraldry is mandatory listening for fans of Sühnopfer, Ungfell, Grylle, Heltekvad, and particularly mid-2000s Peste Noire.