Black Metal

In 2017, GOATMOON truly etched its name its Finnish black metal legendry with Stella Polaris, a monument of cosmic, snow-capped majesty. The entirely dungeon synth Silver Serpent followed in 2021, but now arrives GOATMOON’s full-length return to black metal with What Once Was… Shall Be Again. As presaged by its title, there’s an undeniably yearning and nostalgic aspect to the band’s characteristically epic ruminations, occasionally/often dusted by folkloric synths. But if one were to assume that What Once Was… Shall Be Again would further continue that refinement – and indeed, in large part, it does – the album equally takes GOATMOON back to their earliest, rawest roots, here temped by the steely-eyed austerity of older age and wisdom. It’s a skillful balance pulled off with aplomb, proving that the band honor their history but rarely repeat themselves. And more than anything, it provides another dazzling new canvas on which warriors and dreamers can explore…but no safe spaces here, of course. No other words necessary: What Once Was… Shall Be Again!

Black Metal

Long an infamous name in underground circles, GOATVULVA formed in Finland in 1989 as a solo-project/side-distraction. With the band’s creations booze-fueled and spur-of-the-moment, many recordings are rumored to exist, and dates of release are entirely speculative. However, it is with absolute authority that the legendary Blasphemous Sexfago demo came first, in 1990 – and fittingly so, its title furthering the inspiration/influence of Sarcofago’s earliest (and best) works, and in effect serving as a secondary inspiration/influence for later legions delving into the deepest recesses of the bestial arts. That same year next brought Rehearsal ’90, with a flurry of demos following the next few years: chronologically Baphometal, Capella, Crucifixus, and Erotic Worship, the first- and last-named also serving as unwitting influences many years later for those wishing to explore the gutter of bestial/experimental black-noise morbidity.

Wasting no time with this enviable momentum, GRABUNHOLD return little more than a year later with more medieval madness: Heldentod, their full-length debut. Just as spellbinding as the preceding EP but even more expansive, Heldentod immediately creates a compelling canvas that’s simultaneously tied to tradition and pushing that tradition further. Its songwriting and attendant soundfield suggest strong second-wave vibes – silent citadels, sequestered keeps, dark dungeons – but never whiff of retro posturing or ham-fisted revisionism; rather, their invocation runs parallel to the Old Ways, fluently speaking the ancient dialect instead of stunted pidgin. In other, more telling ways, Heldentod strikes upon braver and less-travelled territory, bristling with a sparkling sort of production that’s palatable in its almost-crystalline sheen and befitting the album’s contents. Here, GRABUNHOLD maintain a more solemn aspect – more “pagan,” if you will – that’s given spectral flight through cascading melodicism and an integration of choral vocals, perhaps most stirringly encapsulated in the Spartan hymn “Trommeln in der Tiefe.” Elsewhere, the fire of old burns hotter than ever, with the band’s bravado amplified by the powerful ‘n’ pro production.

Black Metal

Hailing from Germany, GRABUNHOLD are ’90s black metal classicism incarnate. The quartet showed boundless promise with their first demo, Auf den Hügelgräberhöhen, in 2017, but it’s with their debut EP, Unter dem Banner der Toten, where GRABUNHOLD really come into their own – and quickly. Comprising three central black metal tracks and a solemn instrumental, this swift ‘n’ spellbinding short-length references a whole host of timeless influences – beyond the wandering moon, an arising realm upon a shadowthrone, dark waters stirring at the dawn of the dying sun – but processes them in such an undeniably Teutonic, swords-drawn way that’s wholly their own, and wholly refreshing. It’s medieval madness run riot, and it’s riotously compelling.