VALDRIN
Throne of the Lunar Soul

No longer one of the metal underground's best-kept secrets, VALDRIN began picking up momentum with the 2018 BLOOD HARVEST release of their second album, Two Carrion Talismans - epic, shapeshifting blackened death that was both timeless and fresh - and then eclipsed that achievement two years later with third album Effigy of Nightmares, also released by BLOOD HARVEST, whereby the band dove deeply into the bluish purple depths of '90s melodic black metal. To hear comparisons to Vinterland, Sacramentum, and Sweden's Dawn wasn't mere hyperbole; it was assertive truth, as commanding as VALDRIN's songwriting mastery. Which is to say nothing of the band's ongoing Ausadjur Mythos, a fantastical tale begun with their Beyond the Forest debut album and which forms the lyrical basis of all since.