Black Metal

From the dawn of the classic debut album, Netherstorm, in 2018, Finland’s VARGRAV have almost single-handedly reinvigorated the oft-maligned symphonic black metal subgenre. Forged in fires from the ancients – founder V-Khaoz’s credentials are vast and stretch back decades – and stoking the embers last left by Obtained Enslavement and Norway’s Covenant and Odium, VARGRAV’s two albums to date stand as proud pillars of shimmering, classics-based obsidian.

As momentous as those two full-lengths have been, VARGRAV arguably eclipse both with their third album, The Nighthold. With a lineup that now includes the notorious Graf Werwolf von Armageddon on vocals and Moonsorrow members Trollhorn of the Black Harvest on guitars/bass and Baron M. Tarwonen on drums, VARGRAV’s swirling, cosmic surge has never been more potent; their attack is both sharper and dreamier, crystal-clear and opaque simultaneously. That added clarity creates more immediacy as The Nighthold kicks in, for the aggression of old is kicked into overdrive here and the synths take on a truly orchestral aspect. It’s not for nothing that the album is a full hour in length: everything here sounds (and feels) HUGE, one massive velvety purple landscape of stained-glass visions as far as the third eye can see. And all 12 tracks are threaded together in a plausibly cinematic manner; while each is mighty in its own respective right, VARGRAV sequence every song with artistic flair and high drama, concluding the immersive experience with a daresay-soulful guitar solo during the coda of “Creator of the True Realm” that then segues into the nearly-10-minute big-screen instrumental “Ghostlands.” What film or filmic realm one enters into (or leaves) is entirely up to the listener…The Nighthold is boundless!

Black Metal

Venusberg Cardinal’s Atlas of Dungeons was recorded winter 2010—the same sessions as Departure Chandelier’s Antichrist Rise to Power and was intended as a brother project exploring medieval and ancient tortures depicted across such paintings as The Garden of Earthly Delights and the doom of pre-Raphaelite Greek mythology in what the band describes as “antique black metal.” Originally set for release as a cassette album, this has been pulled from the archives of Occult Antiquities and presented to judged souls now under the banner of NWN! Productions. Musically in line with French black metal influences, Atlas of Dungeons pays special tribute and honors the perverse satanic cruelty, in particular of Cantus Bestiae. Despite using the same 4-track, drums, and guitars as Departure Chandelier in the now fabled Prisoner’s Chant studio, listeners will find a pure minimalist black metal atmosphere devoid of synth with long, hypnotic instrumental passages—until the alarming and eerie outro that features the previously unknown electronic/ambient peripheral of Departure Chandelier…Coronation Prédateur. Welcome, sinners, to the world of Occult Antiquities and antique black metal!

Black Metal

Mystical and arcane, yet unrelenting and unmerciful Black Metal from the depths of the Portuguese underground.
Jewel Case CD version, limited to 100.

Black Metal

“Undying Order Of The Black Flames” emerges from the ashes of eternal hatred in the cold winter. Honoring the immortal ancient medieval anti-ecclesiastical orders and the sacrilegial heretical currents of ancient times.

A resistance to orthodoxy, a rejection of the light and beliefs of the dead god and his rotten cross.

Black Metal

Glorious and Raw Black Metal from Norway.

If you’re a fan of old school black metal formations from Norway like DARKTHRONE or BEASTCRAFT, then you should definitely check VORGFANG !

Black Metal

Satanic Metal Temple 2018-2020 Anno Satanas.

All music by Werwolf. Lyrics by Vritrahn and Werwolf, except “Crucifucked (S.S.)” by Shyaithan (Impiety).

Black Metal

Exhumed from sanguine sulfur necropolis by charnel smoke spell, Ecuador’s Wampyric Rites have been evoked once again for another masterclass in raw black metal orthodoxy, with their latest incantation, Summoning the Beasts in the Night of Lycanthropic Moon, being a four chapter grimoire slaked with the lunar thirst of the unquenchable bestial bloodlust.