Black Metal

The first full-length of this legendary Finnish act available again on CD.

Black Metal

Originally released in various limited editions since early 2019, Burning Banners of the Funereal War began the saga that is WARMOON LORD. Arguably the best-kept secret of the ever-fertile Finnish black metal underground, the band is the sole work of one Lord Vrajitor, a prolific figure in the wider Finnish music underground, but also concurrently the mainman of Old Sorcery. But whereas that band largely/mostly works within the dungeon synth genre, WARMOON LORD is pure & proud black metal of a most fantastical nature – equally medieval, maybe even more so, but burning with icy-hot passion that so fired the second wave during the mythical 1990s.

Black Metal

Digipak CD. Limited to 500 copies.

Black Metal

For a decade now, Finland’s WHITE DEATH have built a small-yet-formidable canon of work that’s come to define modern underground black metal in their nation. It’s no secret that Finland has possessed one of the most potent black metal scenes from the early ’90s onward, and with each new generation that picks up the torch, some are contenders and others are just content to uphold “the Finnish sound.” WHITE DEATH took their time with deploying demos and then their debut album, simply self-titled, but they occupied a unique position between those poles: steeped in noble tradition, but exuding a confidence and charisma that rendered White Death an exceptionally nasty work even with its considerably cleaner production. Three years of silence followed between the release of that debut album and the three-song Promo 2020, which included an Enochian Crescent cover – an inspired choice from an oft-unsung legend, and a portent of grandeur to come.

Black Metal

WINTER ETERNAL return with their boldest record yet: Echoes of Primordial Gnosis. While immediately recognizable as the same WINTER ETERNAL that delivered the preceding modern classic, Echoes of Primordial Gnosis just-as-prominently displays a greater usage of dynamics, particularly those revolving around acoustic and clean-stringed instruments such as cello.

Black Meta

Razorsharp Black Metal attack from this new Finnish Black Metal band without any famous members from other bands.

Monumental songs with a great sense of melody, grim vocals and a sense of true tradition without being clichéd “Finnish Black Metal”

Black Metal

Recorded between September 2021 & March 2022.

Limited to 380 copies.

Black Metal

Compilation of various CDs and EPs.

Black Metal

Now, as summer’s heat inevitably fades away amid soon-to-be-falling leaves, Wooden Throne returns with an equally mighty successor: Eternal Wanderer of the Night Sky. Almost too perfectly titled, Eternal Wanderer of the Night Sky highlights the nostalgia hinted at by its full-length predecessor while also expanding Lehto’s gaze as high as that night sky AND down to the mossy depths of the forest floor. Much of what made Wooden Throne‘s first album such a classic is still intact – acute sense of space (often literally), impassioned performance, kaleidoscopic production – but Eternal Wanderer of the Night Sky is every inch a counterpart / counterpoint. The real development is the prominent usage of piano: never busy but always front and center, sublimely bittersweet notes lead the onward-and-skyward charge, pulling heartstrings as handily as they send chills down the spine. In this sense, and when coupled with Lehto’s more overtly lead-oriented guitar work here, Wooden Throne‘s second album is not so much a strictly “black metal” record as it is an atmospheric metal one – and, once again, paradoxically uplifting no matter what appellation you apply to it.

Black Metal

Raw Black Metal from USA.

Digipak. No track titles appear on release.

Recorded throughout Winter MMXVII – MMXVIII on analog four track.

Black Metal

New full-length of the ONSP master Yaocuicatl.

Black Metal

The bats having flown the belfry, YMIR continue their pillage of the present with the second album Aeons of Sorrow. Driving deeper into the past, Vrasjarn unfurls a comparatively more melodic and nuanced record that’s icier and, daresay, more beautiful. Here, he’s joined by the always-commanding presence of Corvus on vocals and prolific veteran drummer VnoM, with bass by True Black Dawn’s Syphon and additional synths by Tyranny’s Agathul – a crucial component of the mesmerizing tapestry of Aeons of Sorrow. To step into the album’s landscape is to imbue the spiritual essence, the psychic sensations, the all-enveloping ATMOSPHERE of 1995. Quiet castles, ice-capped mountains, beastly blizzards, infinite darkness, capes and swords and chainmail: while seemingly innocuous “triggers” for those who don’t breathe that essence – or worse, mere items of mockery – they serve as the textural touchstones for bands like YMIR and records like Aeons of Sorrow, both in increasingly short supply no matter what the internet might tell you. And yet, with the skillfully unselfconscious songwriting on display here, the album adds to that noble tradition rather than listlessly pecking at its remains.