Black Metal

While largely within the wider umbrella of black metal, RVBBERVVITCH’s unique expression nevertheless evades easy categorization – nor easy consumption. Guitars are harsh and cold, yet seemingly summoned from a post-apocalyptic crater rather than an amp; bass tones are mercilessly overdriven, grinding body and soul into the dirt; cutting out humanity altogether, both blastbeats and doomy stomps pump like pus from a Midi drum-machine; and sinister echoing soundscapes meld with malodorous French vocals, which demonically range heavily distorted screeches to low-pitched grunts. And whereas so many nowadays “black metal” bands play-act, the creator of RVBBERVVITCH matches content with form, life with art: the unconventional, largely taboo visual imagery is a reflection of the artist’s unabashedly hedonistic lifestyle.

Black Metal

And so the battle continues with Aamongandr, SATANIC WARMASTER’s first studio full-length since 2014’s acclaimed Fimbulwinter. Indeed, where that album evinced a diversity of songcraft and, more so, a concertedly polished aspect that majestically made that obsidian gleam, Aamongandr explores that duality with equally compelling results. In fact, with the album wasting no time in kicking into high gear, SATANIC WARMASTER sounds more urgent than ever – and yet, here is where the band’s epic side is also revealed in full. Cryogenic and caressing is its melodicism, in the glare of burning churches, and deftly dusted with subtle synths that heighten the mysticism at the heart of the SW sound, Aamongandr’s six songs charge forth with the grim grandiosity of mighty steeds; not for nothing is one of the album’s highlights titled “Duke’s Ride (Ride of the Spectral Hooves).” All told, this sixth long-form statement of intent is immediately recognizable as SATANIC WARMASTER but irrevocably proves that its creator’s imagination continues to flow as infinitely as the Atlantean depths.

Black Metal

Full-length from 2005 available again on DCD.

Tracks 2-1 to 2-7 live in Helsinki 2015
Track 2-8 Bizarre Uproar collaboration 2017
Tracks 2-9 and 2-10 original demo version

Black Metal

SHATARGAT compilation of the Crushing The Thrones Of Light (Demo 1996) and Wolfe Der Nacht (Demo 1999) tapes.