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 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

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.

Black Metal

YMIR’s history stretches back to the late ’90s. The band originally existed as a trio of vocalist/guitarist Vrasjarn, later of funeral doomlords Profetus; drummer Lord Sargofagian, who concurrently founded the prolific Baptism; and lead guitarist Toni Pšlkki. With this lineup, YMIR released the Trollsword demo in 1999, mystical black metal firmly (and favorably) of its time. Seven more years would follow before another recording came from YMIR, as the brothers Vrasjarn and Lord Sargofagian were busy with the aforementioned bands (and many others), but the Silvery Howling demo at last arrived in 2006, courtesy of WEREWOLF, and saw the band scaled back to a duo and evincing a rawer, nastier sound whilst retaining the sweet stench of the ’90s. Naturally, once again, more silence ensued…