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Il carrello è vuoto
Il carrello è vuoto
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!
A5 digipack
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.
Black Vinyl
Mara Comes and Darkness Shall Reign is conceptual opus explores the multifaceted nature of darkness—both internal and cosmic. Musically, it expands the band’s signature style, merging atmospheric black metal with melodic and post-black elements. The result is a richly textured soundscape of haunting beauty, featuring ritualistic passages, soaring melodic solos, and a dynamic interplay of vocal contrasts. With this album, the musicians boldly push genre boundaries, crafting a profound and evocative listening experience that resonates long after the final note fades.
Mara Comes and Darkness Shall Reign is conceptual opus explores the multifaceted nature of darkness—both internal and cosmic. Musically, it expands the band’s signature style, merging atmospheric black metal with melodic and post-black elements. The result is a richly textured soundscape of haunting beauty, featuring ritualistic passages, soaring melodic solos, and a dynamic interplay of vocal contrasts. With this album, the musicians boldly push genre boundaries, crafting a profound and evocative listening experience that resonates long after the final note fades.
Digipak.
Tracks 1-7 were recorded at Pop Studios, Turku, Finland, during fullmoon of March 1999. Originally released on the split with Valor. Tracks 1, 2 and 5 were also released as the Ad Noctum 7".
Tracks 8-12 recorded at Tico-Tico Studios, Kemi, Finland, during 4-6 of May 1997. Originally released as the Demo 1997 tape.
An aptly titled record no matter the language, Naturmystik brings together two modern stalwarts of mystical black metal. HÄXANU - whose acclaimed second album, Totenpass, was released last year by AMOR FATI - is the duo of multi-instrumentalist Alex Poole (Chaos Moon, Krieg, Skáphe, Ringarė, etc) and vocalist/lyricist L.C. of Lichmagick. Much as that album had equal footing in Nordic snow and Hellenic melody, so, too, do their four exclusive songs here. Stargazing as ever but perhaps bringing back some of the violent hysteria of their early work, HÄXANU hammer their point home with a triumphant fury. Sweden's GREVE, of course, is yet another work of ever-restless Ancient Records linchpin Swartadauþuz (BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ, GNIPAHÅLAN. Trolldom, Musmahhu, Azelisassath, Digerdöden, Mystik, Summum, Daudadagr, Daudadagr). To date, GREVE have released two equally massive full-lengths through PURITY THROUGH FIRE, 2019's Nordarikets Strid and 2022's Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå. Naturmystik features the first music from the trio since, and their four songs here carry that same torch: shimmering 1996-vintage obsidian, emitting that racing-yet-floating sensation which made GREVE's two albums such modern classics. Together on Naturmystik, both HÄXANU and GREVE once again prove that black metal classicism can be a boundless wellspring of brilliance.
