This is one of those one-man Black Metal projects, isn’t it? Figured as much. What gave it away, you ask? Well before even listening to Argenthorn’s The Ravening (Avantgarde Music) the band’s name and record label sort of told me everything I needed to know. That and there’s a track titled ‘I Incursion II A Procession of Spectres.’

 

Oh, and let us not forget that Avantgarde’s website features this doozy of a sentence when describing the album: “Gone are the days of high adventure, but there are portals and webways that cross paths with our mundane lives.” Don’t know exactly what that means but I reckon it would look cool as fuck as the tagline to a future Conan the Barbarian film.

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger starring franchises aside, what Juuso Peltola is dishing out here is symphonic black metal that doesn’t lean as much into what Dimmu Borgir was dealing twenty years ago and more of a revisit to Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk just with more atmospherics. And I am not of the opinion that classical orchestrations and metal shouldn’t mix – looking at you, Eddie Trunk – but it’s a spice that needs to be carefully portioned out.

 

 

Should The Ravening open and close with orchestral pieces like ‘Hänen Salissaan Kastoimme Unenhoureet Vereen’ and ‘Elpyminen?’ No.

 

I say this as the keyboard flourishes in the middle of ‘In the Hoary Shadows of the Blighted Gardens’ work beautifully as a contrast to the musical arson surrounding it. The same applies to ‘The Manor of the Demon Duke’ which I like to imagine is a song about the life and times of Prince Andrew.

 

Moving forward, however, I would like for Peltola to focus more on thrash pace on future Argenthorns releases. But this is black metal, right? Yet somehow the blast beat attack takes a backseat to the more Bay Area speeds featured on ‘The Grand Hallowing of the Tyrant’ and on the aforementioned ‘I Incursion II A Procession of Spectres.’ It’s the type of stuff that would make a young Dave Lombardo proud.

 

Still not sure about the days of high adventure, though.

Buy the album here:

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-ravening

 

6 / 10

HANS LOPEZ