God Dethroned (NLD) – Ravenous LP

Black Metal

In the womb of one of the secrets of time lies an inalienable resonance between the roots of man and his history cognizance. Oftenly, the seeking of an endless spirit endowment engulfs him with a veil of barren knowledge, that commonly ties his thoughts and reflections to the boundaries of an ordinary living, dragged by a flux of invisible strands that may craft a path leading nowhere. Sometimes, this delivers into a self-inducted catharsis where the glorious pursuit of ancient trails in own’s blood turns imperative. Despite it being minimum or gigantic. Pure as a child’s heart or intertwined as a chimera. This seed is what made man within and not without. Empowering him to step above all his previous versions yet giving birth to what will become his spiritform.

Black Metal

Building upon that grand fortress is a four-song/22-minute mini-album likewise truly titled: The Oath of the Black Wolf. Here, ORGREL have gone a-hunting, their ’90s black metal classicism stalking and striking with a hunger only hinted at previously. Still, fueled by this fire they may be, the Italians across this mini manage to maximize their epic side, with the predecessor’s flat-yet-full soundfield now becoming slightly more chromatic in the process. Lead lines portend dark truths, ever building in tension and then grandeur, but the record’s swift-yet-satisfying runtime reveals the darkest, most intrinsic truth: black metal doesn’t need to “become” anything when it already IS. Hail The Oath of the Black Wolf!

Black Metal

One of the most accomplished newcomers Signal Rex has come across in recent years, the shadowy entity of Valais burst from the voidal womb fully formed in the middle of 2021 with their self-titled debut album. Despite existing in the vast (and vastly inconsistent) wilderness of Bandcamp, Valais in fact imparted a power and poignancy that takes most bands at least a couple records to reach, if at all. Both classically composed and forward-thinking, Valais understood right from the start the core tenets of true black metal, but equally understood how to inject their own personality and poise into such to create something that adds to the language of BLACK METAL rather than mimics its speech patterns (and sloppily so).

No, Valais as a work is a towering monument of tension and release, skillful contours and subtle dynamics, richly malevolent melody and slipstreaming violence. Aesthetic touchstones include the likes of Slidhr, latter-day Leviathan, and even Blut Aus Nord at their wiliest, but Valais also exhibit an understated sense of the pagan – perhaps stemming from their native Ireland, or perhaps from some strange cosmos far beyond our comprehension… Either way, all of this coalesces into a whilrlwinding five-song/37-minute experience that feels far vaster than that succinct runtime otherwise suggests. As such, Signal Rex is honored to rightfully release this tome in all physical formats.