Black Metal

Titled Outojen Tornien Varjoissa, FAUSTIAN PACT’s full-length debut is the grand culmination of all the gloriously bewitching work they brewed across that trio of demos. Exploding with an effervescence that’s addicting and undeniable, their swords-aloft attack surges and swells, crests and cascades. At the forefront are stained-glass synths whisked from a time – and a fantastical landscape – far, FAR away, sumptuously underlining their heroic/romantic style of black metal deeply steeped in a nostalgic past. Across the album’s 41 minute (fantastical) landscape are spread lyrics of splendorous mythology, swords & sorcery, vast forgotten realms brought to life through wily, wanderlusting black metal betraying a noble melodicism. FAUSTIAN PACT are thus a unique balance of contrasts: orkish energy vs. mystical atmosphere, dungeon rawness vs. castle-top aristocracy, obsidian darkness vs. gleaming light. So, whether 25 years ago or 2500, removed by a reality or two, Outojen Tornien Varjoissa is timeless BLACK METAL MAGICK – dark medieval times have at last arrived!

Black Metal

“Ruumissaarna Pt. 1 is about the darker side of Finnish man’s nature,” explains founding guitarist/bassist Valgrinder. “It tries to find and understand the reasons which make ordinary man a beast, a killer, when opportunity and circumstances are right – when things move in a certain direction slowly but surely, until it reaches the point where there’s no turning back anymore. It’s about our inner demon – The Perkele – who is living inside us and just waiting to get the opportunity to take over. And of course, it’s also about those innocent ones who have to take the consequences. Ruumissaarna isn’t fantasy nor fiction; it’s the everyday darkness we want to deny. It’s the darker side of Finnish culture and our nature.”

Black Metal

These are earliest recordings of Förgjord that has any value. “Tie, Totuus & Kuolema” was our first official demo, but lack of connections, it wasnt spread widely. Note that these are the original recordings from that session, not re-worked versions from “Henkeen ja Vereen”.

Black Metal

Both triumphant and melancholic, violent and resigned, hysteric and finessed, Queen of Frost brazenly displayed the full swathe of FUNERAL FROST’s considerable arsenal. With a raw-yet-robust soundfield neither dampening nor exaggerating any of their dynamics, here did the Swedish trio spelunk in dungeons and raze battlefields alike, their screaming-into-the-nightsky sound surprisingly medieval and moody. Likewise, compared to so many of their blastbeating-all-the-time contemporaries, FUNERAL FROST shifted speeds often and never lingered too long in one, with the drums in particular ringing with authentically analog clarity. Add to this a subtle daubing of synths and Queen of Frost stands as a crucial tome for those into classic Arckanum, Kvist, Sorhin, and Norway’s Perished.

Finnish Black Metal

Originally released in 2011, Varjot was the sound of mainman BlackGoat Gravedesecrator truly hitting a fever pitch of creativity. Over the course of the band’s first two albums, 2004’s Death Before Dishonour and 2007’s Finnish Steel Storm, GOATMOON sharpened its punkish black metal attack to a sterling degree, injecting a bit of triumph ‘n’ tragedy into the latter that would then fully bloom on Varjot. Not for nothing is Varjot rightfully regarded as a classic: refined and even regal, the barbarism of old is recast in a truly epic light, whisking the listener away to forgotten realms of magick, mysticism, and dark deeds. Thereafter could GOATMOON etch its name into the annals of legend, and the band’s controversial climb to the uppermost echelon of Finnish black metal was assured. Witness that legend again, or for the first time, with this long-overdue reissue of Varjot!

Black Metal

Classic debut full-length available again on CD.

Slightly darker cover – redesigned layout.