I Am The Night – While The Gods Are Sleeping (Svart)
While The Gods Are Sleeping is the debut album from Finnish black metal artists, I Am The Night. The band is made up of veterans of the scene that includes members of Insomnium, Paradise Lost and Omnium Gatherum. Here is an album dripping with nineties Norwegian black metal goodness clearly inspired by the works of Mayhem and Emperor. The traditional style and sounds are performed flawlessly by I Am The Night. The band not only plays a great tribute to the classic second wave of black metal but still manages to stamp their own signature on it.
Vocals come in harsh and raspy with a few clean vocals added to elevate some tracks. The synthesizers and keyboards are perfectly balanced adding a great chilling and icy atmospheric feeling to the tracks without overdoing it.
‘The Owl’ is an epic track with just the right amount of synthesizer and clean vocals used for an awesome dramatic effect. The guitars have your standard tremolo picking sounds but also have some killer riffs, melodic shifts and plenty of intensity.
I Am The Night deliver the goods on their debut album that is an essential listen, even black metal purists will find it hard to fault this production. While The Gods Are Sleeping is a masterful work that does an exceptional job of celebrating the second wave of black metal and building on it.
8 / 10
I Am The Night – While The Gods Are Sleeping is out now via Svart Records. You can order it here: https://iamthenight.bandcamp.com/
Freja – Tides (Babylon Doom Cult)
Freja consists of two musicians from the Netherlands who formed in 2019. Tides is their first official release and is an album crammed full of intense, spacious and even catchy in some parts, atmospheric black metal. With 6 tracks of varying degrees of intensity, the duo that is Freja takes the listener on an epic journey that is worthy of multiple listens.
Tides starts out with a thunderous blast on the track, ‘Our Chosen Path’. Downtuned tremolo picking, raspy vocals and powerful blast beats prove that Freja has the chops to produce some unbridled face melting black metal. The album gets darker and softer with ‘Scattered Shields’ as the tone changes to a more atmospheric approach with haunting melodies and clean female vocals. This approach is continued and expanded upon in the next track, ‘Dusk’, which perfectly combines feelings of melancholy and fear with furious blast beats and sinister guitars that break up the bleakness.
Freja aren’t afraid to change up their sound either. ‘Cataclysm’ is a real banger with a hard groove opening that offers a nice change of pace halfway through the album. While this song sticks out from the rest, it really showcases the duo’s musicianship and their ability to blend black metal styles. Freja is definitely a band to keep on your radar with this impressive debut.
7 / 10
Freja – Tides is out now via Babylon Doom Cult. You can order it here: https://babylondoomcultrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tides
The Dark Overlords- Darkpocalypse (UPRISING!)
The Dark Overlords are back with their second EP, promising more extreme music madness, intensity and devastation than before and completely delivering on that promise. The mysterious group consisting of members Dark Overlord #1, Dark Overlord #2 and Dark Overlord #3 out of Denmark are keeping their identities a secret for now. Is it possible that members of the band may be involved in more prominent and popular bands? They definitely sound like veterans of the scene as they perform some pretty seriously good hard hitting blackened thrash metal.
With their second track, ‘Ritus Daemonius’, The Dark Overlords prove that they can play some crushing, face melting metal. This track hits on all of the right places, brutal and vicious with just the right amount of tempo changes tied together with some pretty cool soundbites. ‘Sacrificial Chamber’ keeps the chaos dripping with more brutality and great riffs.
The EP only has five tracks (four if you don’t count the short instrumental opener) and that may be the only drawback to this release. Each song is vicious and brutal, filled to the brim with nasty vocals, blast beats and well written and composed guitar riffs. The production on this EP is slick and polished as well, this is not your average recording in a dungeon bathroom with a casio recorder black metal. Let’s hope they put out a full album soon!
9 / 10
The Dark Overlords Darkpocalypse is out now via UPRISING! You can order it here: https://thedarkoverlords.bandcamp.com/album/darkpocalypse
Vimur- Transcendental Violence (Boris Records)
Atlanta, or “Hotlanta,” as many of the locals refer to it as, may be one of the last places you would think to find quality frostbitten black metal, yet here we are. Vimur are back with their third album, Transcendental Violence, their first since fan favorite Triumphant Master of Fate released in 2019. Has the Covid time void of affected their sound on the new album?
Thankfully, no. Vimur are back with more raw and punishing black metal. You can still expect to hear plenty of the second wave of black metal influence on this release with enough tremolo guitars, blast beats and evil sneers to keep the fires in your cave burning bright.
Most of the tracks contained in this release are slow to mid tempo giving much more of a “doom” vibe than their previous efforts and add much more variety to the listening experience.
Vimur also adds plenty of atmospheric elements here even with a few moments of clean playing added into the mix. The sudden shifts in style are what make this album stand out. When the blast beats hit though, you can expect to hear plenty of old fashioned hard hitting black metal that is guaranteed to shake something loose in your skull. Vimur keeps the blast beats to a minimum, perhaps making them more effective in the end.
Transcendental Violence is a worthy follow up to Triumphant Master of Fate. Despite not living in a frozen tundra, this Atlanta based black metal band knows how to bring forward the cold and darkness. Fans of both traditional and atmospheric black metal will find something to love and appreciate here.
7 / 10
Vimur Transcendental Violence is out now via Boris Records. You can order it here: https://borisrecords.bandcamp.com/album/transcendental-violence
Haunter- Disincarnate Ails (Profound Lore)
Haunter is another black metal band that proves that you do not have to be surrounded by ice and darkness to create progressive and atmospheric black metal. Based out of the humid and sun soaked land of Austin, Texas, Haunter have returned with their third album, and first to be released on their new label, Profound Lore. Disincarnate Ails consists of three brand new epic length tracks with plenty of dynamic and melodic passages that highlight their unique progressive/black/death style.
Musical styles and various metal labels aside,this album has plenty for the listener to digest with tons of prog elements and layers upon layers of musical shifts throughout the experience. Although there are only 3 tracks on this release, the album’s run time is still roughly thirty minutes and each song is loaded to the brim with tons of shifting song structures and plenty of impressive musicianship.
The only problem with this release is that at times it feels a little too proggy, don’t get me wrong, this is definitely still a heavy as fuck release. Prog nerds are going to dig the hell out of this album, fans of more straight forward in your face extreme music may want to sit this one out. This is an album that builds on each spin and will suck you in if you are willing to put the work into it.
6 / 10
Haunter Discarnate Ails is out now via Profound Lore. You can order it here: https://hauntertx.bandcamp.com/album/discarnate-ails
Moonlight Sorcery- Piercing Through The Frozen Eternity (Avantgarde Music)
Finnish black metal band, Moonlight Sorcery round out this review roundup with their debut EP, Piercing Through The Frozen Eternity. This EP goes balls out into the symphonic side of black metal with some amazing synth alongside some of the catchiest riffs in extreme metal this year. For a debut offering, Moonlight Sorcery is exceptionally tight, musically blending several elements of ambience, blast beats and traditional metal into the mix.
The standout track, ‘Wolven Hour’, starts out with a very old school NWOBHM guitar gallop that melds perfectly with the more familiar black metal elements of blast beats, raspy vocals and ambient synth. Tons of great over the top solo work over the grimy black metal sound give a very interesting and intriguing contrast.
This is an extremely impressive debut EP that is sure to turn a couple of heads and quickly place Moonlight Sorcery on the map. Their musical style is digestible enough for those who are casually into the more extreme sides of metal and “trve” enough for even the most elitist black metal fans. Expect to hear more great things from them in the future.
9 / 10
Moonlight Sorcery Piercing Through The Frozen Eternity is out digitially now with physical copies available on 13 May 2022, via Avantgarde Music. You can order it here: https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/piercing-through-the-frozen-eternity
ANDREW RISCH