Black Metal

Originally released in 2007, Finnish Steel Storm is the album where GOATMOON truly came into its own and solidified a unique sound now revered far and wide. Here, monomaniacal mainman BlackGoat Gravedesecrator sharpened his previously punkish attack into gleaming black metal – ever distinctly Finnish, but now with a refinement that truly exuded the triumph ‘n’ tragedy at the heart of his aesthetic. And while he’d continue that refinement over subsequent albums, it was in this crucial year and on this crucial album where GOATMOON became one of Finland’s most lethal (and most infamous) black metal bands. Banned in Germany, experience Finnish Steel Storm again, now with improved layout and on gold disc – forever may that storm roil and rage…

Black Metal

Classic full-length available again on CD.

Slightly darker cover – redesigned layout.

Black Metal

It was but 2020 when GRIEVE emerged from the darkness with their self-titled debut EP. Although otherwise meant to exist strictly in that darkness, it was soon discerned that the band included veritable Finnish black metal royalty within its ranks. Nevertheless, the swiftly uncompromising nature of Grieve was felt: Northern Black Metal Exclusively From the 1990s. No more, no less, no progression, no fun.

And then, at the dawn of 2020 came GRIEVE’s first – and, at the time, final – album. Aptly titled Funeral, the record was a fiercely focused one, solely featuring funereal marches by V-Khaoz and last rites by Werwolf. Beyond cold, utterly grim, violent and restrained simultaneously, Funeral was a record out of time, one where the last couple decades of “black metal” never existed. And then GRIEVE ceased to exist.

But, obeying only nature and will, GRIEVE have arisen from their own self-imposed grave with the second full-length Wolves of the Northern Moon. “We said we’d end the project for good, but we lied,” state the band about that grave. “We exhumed it.” Indeed, the exhumation also includes a nastiness last found on such Nordic classics as Kronet til konge, Pentagram, Til evighet…, or even Black Thrash Attack. Essentially, then, GRIEVE’s ethics have not changed (nor should they have to), but one can nonetheless find here a pronounced asskicking sensibility that adds further antagonization to trendy ears as well as a noble march to mystical victories. “Eternal Winter, Eternal War”: These Wolves of the Northern Moon are on the hunt – and you’re next!

Black Metal

Debut album of the new Lauri project.

Pure Finnish Black Metal

Black Metal

Originally released in 1999, Noitatulen vartija was the debut EP of KYPRIAN’S CIRCLE, and also the band’s final recording. Granted, mainman Kyprian had released three demos during 1996 and ’97 and then a split tape in ’98, but the five-song/19-minute Noitatulen vartija was the longest recording he released under the KYPRIAN’S CIRCLE banner. As such, it was the fullest exploration of his aesthetic, and a perfect distillation of the times: raw-yet-ethereal black metal brimming with both a moonlit mysticism and a woodland wonder. Simple pleasures, to be sure, but ones that extolled the eternal glory of ancient black metal. Feel the breath of night again, or perhaps for the first time, with KYPRIAN’S CIRCLE’s Noitatulen vartija!

Black Metal

At long last, the full fathom of MOONCITADEL’s now-transcendent powers arrives with the band’s long-awaited debut album, Night’s Scarlet Symphonies. If past MOONCITADEL recordings bore titles evocative of their respective contents, then surely Night’s Scarlet Symphonies trumps them all: here is a bountiful feast of splendorous, widescreen black metal mysticism that’s reverent of the mid ’90s whilst channeling energies new and untold. Everything about MOONCITADEL’s debut album – spiraling melodicism, folkloric atmosphere, impassioned performance, engrossing totality – maximizes the duo’s previous works to their fullest potential, all threaded together by a never-too-raw soundfield that heightens these elements further. Which is to say nothing of its attendant song titles; over the course of its impossibly vast 47-minute runtime, some of Night’s Scarlet Symphonies include “Ablaze My Heart With Falling Stars,” “Nightwind was the Passage Between Worlds,” “Whispering Cry of Magick Undying,” and especially “Monumental Silver Thorns” all conveying this (monumental, silvery, magickal) headspace.

Black Metal

It was but November 2018 when MORGAL fully burst onto the international scene with their self-titled EP for WEREWOLF. At the time, two of their members were not yet even into their 20s, which perhaps explains the exceptionally foul electricity coursing through the 15 shock & awe minutes of Morgal. And despite that young age, MORGAL brazenly exuded the ageless wisdom of true black METAL – so ageless, in fact, that you’d be forgiven for mistaking that EP as the work of very old men. Alas, Morgal was hailed far and wide by all who heard it, and the fever pitch for their true debut album has only grown in intensity.