Review: Daeva – Through Sheer Will and Black Magic

Review by Sandre the Giant

Five years after their debut EP, Philadephia’s Daeva have risen from their dark resting place to release a long awaited debut full length on 20 Buck Spin, ‘Thrugh Sheer Will and Black Magic…’ The band’s heady mix of classic black metal, thrash and ugly death metal was a blast on ‘Pulsing Dark Absorptions’, so hopefully this is the next step in their growth.

After a suitably haunting and occult intro (‘Emanations’), the band explode into their soon to be signature sound, a pitch perfect recreation of the early 80s mix of savage Teutonic thrash and nasty black metal fury. ‘The Architect and the Monument’ writhes with a furious energy, a storm of razor riffing thrashing at maximum speed while the throat shredding screams of vocalist Edward Gonet echo with a virulent intent. The pace refuses to let up, from the rampaging ‘Arena of Dis’ through the black/thrash majesty of ‘Loosen the Tongue of the Dead’ (such early Sodom vibes, tremendous) and even the deathly slash of ‘Itch of the Bottle’, where the ghost of Possessed rears its mangled head. Christ, the fury in ‘Fragmenting in Ritual Splendour’ is one of 2022’s most fearsome metal moments.

But anyone can recycle old Kreator riffs and scream, the key to an excellent blackened thrash record isn’t just energy or talent, it is the memorable song. We can all pick ‘Flag of Hate’ or ‘Bloody Corpse’ out immediately, so what of Daeva’s work? Well, I can’t get ‘Passion Under the Hammer’ at least out of my brain, such is the awesome riff patterns burned into my brain. Daeva pull out some lovely proper thrash chugs within the thorny black metal framework, laced with the blackest of melodies and served directly into your ears at 100 miles an hour. ‘Through Sheer Will and Black Magic…’ is loaded with rabid earworms, killer riffs and an atmosphere that is so authentic, you can almost smell the burning churches from here. Superb.

https://www.facebook.com/daevablackthrash/

https://www.20buckspin.com/

Review: Hammers of Misfortune – Overtaker

Review by Sandre the Giant

Other than having one of the best band names in the history of metal, Hammers of Misfortune have always been an act that have passed me by. I have heard nothing but praise for their work over the past 20 years or so, but never managed to get round to them. We all have bands like that, yes? Well, ‘Overtaker’ has finally made me take the plunge, with its sterling reviews and stunning artwork. But after all this time, are this band for me? ‘Overtaker’ is out now, self released.

The opening title track is an energetic, thrashy number full of grandiose flourishes and killer soloing. Loaded with 70s prog moments, a hefty dose of wild 80s thrash and more than a touch of King Diamond-esque theatrics, I can see immediately what the appeal of this record is. ‘Dark Brennius’ is a wild, galloping thrasher smothered in glorious keyboard and synth work, while the proggy ‘Ghost Hearts’ is beset from all sides by wonderful keyboard flourishes. It feels a little like ‘Blood Mountain’-era Mastodon even. ‘Outside Our Minds’ reminds me a lot of Brocas Helm, that sort of theatrical yet intense heavy metal. The pace almost never lets up, riffs pile upon riffs while that Hammond organ lurks behind everything like a mad jester like the wonderful ‘The Raven’s Bell’. There’s been few heavy metal anthems this year that kicks like ‘Overthrower’ either, giving Hammers of Misfortune another boost in the ‘holy shit, how good are these guys?’ camp while closer ‘Aggressive Perfection’ flirts with the kind of eccentric doom that we used to get from old school Candlemass before dissolving into a final burst of vintage thrash and prog.

It feels very odd to be ‘discovering’ Hammers of Misfortune on ‘Overtaker’, because I’m sadly bereft of knowledge on how to compare this to their previous work. But I can tell you that I’ve not really heard anything like this this year, a combination of energetic, technical and furious thrash with the glorious experimentation and instrumentation of the 70s prog rock scene. If ‘Overtaker’ is an example of what I’ve been missing, then I’ll see you in six albums time

https://www.facebook.com/hammersofmisfortune

https://hammersofmisfortune.bandcamp.com/album/overtaker

Review: Inanna – Void of Unending Depths

Review by Sandre the Giant

As 2022 draws to a close, I am on my traditional ‘catch up on records that appeared in everyone else’s AOTY lists’, and ‘Void of Unending Depths’ by Chilean death metallers Inanna turned up a lot so I thought I’ve dive in and see what I was missing. It came out back in April through Memento Mori, and marries the uncompromisingly tech death of legends Pestilence and Atheist to the otherwordly insanity of prime Morbid Angel.

Opener ‘Evolutionary Inversion’ provides you a glimpse into the swirling vortex that such combinations can conjure. Uneasy brutality sits alongside atonal melody and a lurching low end, giving this cosmic seasick feeling, while vocalist Max Neira drops massive growls and screams atop it. The album cover gave us a hint of what dark, Lovecraftian madness and roiling depths we were to fear, but Inanna plow even further than I thought possibly. ‘Among Subaqueous Spectres’ crashes against our bows with the fearsome power of pure death metal; a barrage of drums and guitar that coils and shapes its way into our psyches. You can sense that the shadow of Chthulu and eternal madness covers everything here, from the gargantuan crush and virtuoso bass work of ‘Underdimensional’ through the thrashy, spiralling ‘Mind Surgery’ and even into the cyclopean monstrosity of ‘Cabo de Hornos’, our thirteen minute closer. There’s plenty of moments where the weight drops away and you’re left floating in the swallowing darkness, before the monsters rise once more.

‘Void of Unending Depths’ is almost an hour long but at no point did I notice or care. Everything here is of such a quality and such a maddening addictiveness that I remained absorbed to the final notes. It says in the promo notes that there was once an aim to make Inanna a combination of Morbid Angel and 70s prog. While little of that latter one exists here musically, the song writing and sense of storytelling you’d get from those bands certainly does. A sick and twisted tale of horror and beautiful, brutal music, and I’m sad I missed it up until now.

https://www.facebook.com/inannametal

https://inannametal.bandcamp.com

http://www.memento-mori.es/

Review: Smoke of Isengard – Orc Metal

Review by Sandre the Giant

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is. Stoner death metal about the Lord of the Rings, which I can’t imagine has been done before and if it has, it probably wasn’t as committed as this is. Smoke of Isengard hail from Russia and sound like if Merry and Pippin had finished drowning the orcs and then decided to write an Electric Wizard record about it. ‘Orc Metal’ is out in December through Symbol of Domination Productions.

The rumbling doomy riffs of opener ‘Smaug… the Dragon’ (a nod to Weedeater’s  ‘Jason… the Dragon’?) fill your world with dark smoke and haze, dense growls peeking through a miasmic death groove. ‘Dwarf Hunter’ is a rocking stomp of groovy doom with brutal vocals, like if Clutch decided to cover something by Deicide. This type of blueprint follows Smoke of Isengard through much of ‘Orc Metal’, be it the raucous ‘Orc-Dismemberer’ or the soulful, graveyard blues of ‘Smoke of Isengard’. That riff that kicks off ‘The Last Trooper’ is a righteous slab of southern doom, laced with those deep vocals that descend to new levels of gurgling fury on ‘Black Steel’. The more deathly inclinations start to appear more frequently towards the end of the record, but you never lose that doom undercurrent.

‘Orc Metal’ is basically a heavy doom record with death metal vocals, but the insatiable groove you find slathered over everything makes this hard not to like. Memorable, riddled with headbanging moments and  definitely enough brutality to satisfy the more death metal inclined of us, Smoke of Isengard have brought us a record that could easily have been a joke but somehow works, really well!

https://smokeofisengard.bandcamp.com/album/against-war

http://satanath.com/sodp

https://symbolofdomination.bandcamp.com/

Review: Worm – Bluenothing

Review by Sandre the Giant

The newest EP from Floridian monsters Worm brings them straight back to my attention after I was far too late to the party on 2021’s ‘Foreverglade’. I reviewed their ‘Evocation of the Black Marsh’ here, and ‘Gloomlord’ here, and their particular brand of fetid, sludgy death/doom has always been right in my wheelhouse. ‘Bluenothing’ looks to add itself to this impressive discography, and it is out now through 20 Buck Spin.

The title track comes crawling from the swamp, surprisingly swirling with guitar leads and a gloomy yet melodic low end. This turns out to be a red herring though, as the rest of the song begins to descend slowly into a Lovecraftian hellscape; massive crushing riffs writhe under guttural roars and there’s even an organ at one point, emphasising that unsettling feeling even more. Worm have always managed to keep their impenetrable weight fairly ugly and dark, but ‘Centuries of Ooze II’ follows the title track in adding some really melodic leads, allowing us glimpses of beauty in the swampy fog. There’s some churning, brutal riffs in there, but there’s a lot of classic Paradise Lost-style doom in here too.

As the virtuoso guitar leads of ‘Invoking the Dragonmoon’ cascade over a track that sounds like a 70s Italian horror movie soundtrack, it leads us perfectly into the glorious, symphonic ‘Shadowside Kingdom’. A track which aches of latter Bathory and Emperor influences taking Worm all the way back to their black metal influenced beginnings, ‘Bluenothing’ proves itself to be a revelatory experience and one that puts Worm up there as one of those bands you should never miss out on. A majestic piece of art, running the gamut from ugly abyssal void to soaring frosted sky, this is glorious.

https://www.facebook.com/20buckspin

https://wormgloom.bandcamp.com/album/gloomlord

https://www.20buckspin.com/

Review: Mallus Spiritus – Vultures of Despair

Review by Sandre the Giant

A reformation of an old Portugese black metal band, Mallus Spiritus are gracing us with a brand new record, ‘Vultures of Despair’, out now through Raging Planet Records. Now a two man effort instead of a trio, they aim to give us music that will please the progressives and purists alike. This sounds interesting…

The title track’s opening riff takes me straight back to the gloomy heydays of black metal in the early 90s. Rasping screams echo over icy melodic tremolo riffs, occasionally dipping into the weirdness of Atilla Csihar territory. In fact, you get a lot of eerie moments here that set a really dark scene. ‘Spectral Voices from a Chasmic Void’ injects a galloping pace into proceedings, but that sense of creeping fear still resides within when it slows down again. Mallus Spiritus definitely know how to keep the atmosphere dark and mysterious. ‘Shepherds of Deception’ has a sinister, almost industrial vibe at times with unsettling melodies swooning inside more standard black metal fare. The trad black approach of ‘Spiritus Decadentia’ and ‘Resume to Nothingness’ are fairly fun if not inspiring, but the blackened electro-minimalism of ‘Passageway’ is a different story. It leads into the rampant bleak dark of ‘Disengage the Parasite’ and then icy ‘Spiritual Deviations’, that at once plays up to genre tropes but manages to avoid boredom by being really engaging and catchy.

The problem with black metal in 2022 is that orthodoxy reigns supreme in this, more than any other genre. I can’t think of any others that try to pretend nothing since 1994 has happen with such fervour, despite the fact that some of the most vital voices in black metal are the ones who do try something different. Mallus Spiritus exist somewhere in the middle, mixing the more mundane of straightforward black metal with some genuinely dark and creepy moments to create a record that is laden with potential and just looking for that moment to release it fully. Give it a go though.

https://www.facebook.com/MallusSpiritus

https://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com/

Review: Unfyros – Alpha Hunt

Review by Sandre the Giant

‘Alpha Hunt’ is the first release on Finnish record label Aural Hypnox’s new sub label Empyrean Editions, and it is also the debut record from fellow countrymen Unfyros. From experience, Finnish black metal seems to lead the way in melancholic evil, cold and sinister and uniquely, well, Finnish. Let’s see where ‘Alpha Hunt’ comes from.

Opener ‘The Dagger Within’ comes from the slow paced, sinister crawling side of black metal that goes straight for the atmospheric grip on you. Rasping vocals intone threatening incantations as ice cold melody weaves within a frozen background buzz. ‘In Dawn Claws’ keeps this up with a gloriously old school riff pattern, while the creeping, dripping guitar lines of ‘A Numinous Meeting’ are a majestic piece of atmospheric song writing. There’s definitely a part of me that wants to fall into a trance, buoyed along in black meditation with the steady buzzing riffs of ‘Enter the Monolith’. I know I’m emphasing the pace here, but it never fails to intrigue and delight. There’s nothiong boring or one dimensional. In fact, the way Unfyros can keep something like ‘Onyxian (Abyss-Mother)’ so enthralling is difficult to comprehend. Laden with a classic guitar tone, it brings an understated modernity within a melodic black metal framework; a ritualistic record that pulses with occult nature.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to hear some black metal that you can describe as atmospheric without needing the obvious comparison points. There’s nothing Cascadian about this, but ‘Alpha Hunt’ is a masterclass in tension building and scene setting. Stark and grim, almost hypnotic at points, Unfyros create perfect scenes of wintry black metal, where the frost will claim your body and mind slowly but inexorably. Excellent stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/unfyros

https://unfyros.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.auralhypnox-shop.com/

Review: Sceptic – Nailed to Ignorance

Review by Sandre the Giant

Polish death metal has been mining a very promising vein for the past few years, and Sceptic are the latest group to get into my ears from this particular country. Their fifth full length, ‘Nailed to Ignorance’, is out now through Szataniec Records and looks to keep them involved in the genre conversations.

As the eerie tones of ‘Mind Destroyer’ shimmer into view, I feel like we’re going to get something a little otherworldly here. It descends into hellish barrages of atonal riffs, technical riffing but nothing too mental. In fact, I get a lot of At the Gates at the start, a galloping melodeath fury that is punctuated by some nice, Eastern interludes and a very nice solo section. ‘Wolf as a Shepherd’ has a lot of Atheist-like touches, while the more measured ‘Gaia’ has a number of nice acoustic flourishes as well. As the album progresses, you start to get a little more dissonance, a little more technicality threading its way through each song with increasing nods to the early Gothenburg scene as well. It’s quite nice to see a band incorporate that kind of influence into modern tech death instead of just being ‘Slaughter of the Soul’ clones. ‘All I Can Devour’ is a lumbering beast, dense songwriting almost becoming disjointed at points but it holds together. ‘The Sakkara Bird’ is a great instrumental piece, showing what the band can do, but it feels just a little like an overindulgent addition. Fortunately the blazing ‘InHuman’ is a killer, as is album closer ‘Nailed to Ignorance’, and it really highlights that while Sceptic may be guilty of overindulgence, it doesn’t stop them being a very talented outift.

‘Nailed to Ignorance’ is full of excellent compositions, varied and challenging tech death that also gives you plenty to bang your head to. It sometimes can feel a little long in the tooth but it is nothing that the next album can’t fix with a little judicious editing. Overall though, I’m excited to see how Sceptic follow this up.

https://www.facebook.com/ScepticBand/

https://scepticpl.bandcamp.com/

https://www.szataniec.pl/

List of Grievances: 2022 Albums of the Year

If ever an album was titled better to describe my entire view on music, I haven’t found it yet

Christ, this year has been a blur for me, what with real life work, blogging, the exponential growth in actual parenting I have to do (seriously folks, don’t complain when they’re babies, toddlers are busy little fuckers) but I’m always happy when I can get to the end of year lists. My Album of the Year is, this year, not a slam dunk the way some of the last few years have been, but it was closer than ever this year. We’ve got some heavy hitters, some sentimental favourites and some new blood all coming out of the woodwork with stellar work and I am constantly amazed at what music can do to help us get through life. As with last year, you can find full reviews of everything here on the site

20. Chaos Over Cosmos – A Dream If Ever There Was One: I really enjoyed last year’s effort and despite myself, I really fucking loved this one too. At first glance, it should be everything I don’t like in modern metal but this works so fucking well you’d have to be really nitpicky to not enjoy it. Spiralling prog tech melodeath power metal brilliance.

19. Rotheads – Slither in Slime: ‘Slither in Slime’ is a record that seems superficial and straightforward before you dive in, but unwraps its complexities and nuances with each track until you are left drained and bewildered. Rotheads are pushing a form of death metal that truly feels immersive, eldritch and ancient yet never relying on samples or interludes to get that across. Mournful soloing and a melancholic atmosphere lies across everything they touch, and it makes ‘Slither in Slime’ all the more special to me. Majestic.

18. Devenial Verdict – Ash Blind: Weaving songs equally built around dissonant beauty and skull caving devastation, Devenial Verdict pull notes from the miasmic melody of the galaxy and thread it through punishing drums and intense death metal riffing. An incredible emotive album, with each song revealing an inner fragility despite their fearsome execution. If you can imagine Blut Aus Nord covering Morbid Angel or Gorguts, you’ve got an idea. Even then, that doesn’t begin to cover the superlative nature of ‘Ash Blind’. This is special stuff.

17. Malignant Aura – Abysmal Misfortune is Draped Upon Me: A highly accomplished debut from these Australian death/doom newcomers, giving us all the granite slab dragging riffs mixed with the finest Autopsy-gurgling death metal rage you’ll find outside the band themselves. Definitely one to watch in the future

16. Autopsy – Morbidity Triumphant: Few original flagbearers for the genre maintain this level of quality for so long and with such consistency of vision and sound. Autopsy mix gory early 90s death with an imperiously deathly doom stride and a gurgling unhinged mania to such an incredible degree you’d almost believe this was released between ‘Severed Survival’ and ‘Mental Funeral’. Despite the vast swathe of bands that Autopsy have influenced over the years, there’s never anything quite like the originals is there?

15. The Otolith – Folium Limina: An album full of a beauty that is almost too difficult to describe. It hits all notes; from rumbling, crashing doom to delicate folk ballardry through pastoral shade and bright open space. The vocals are ethereal in the TRUE sense of the word, as if draped gently across the music but underpinned by rich tones and simmering strength. The interplay of violin and guitar could teach classic composers something about harmony, and it all comes together to create 2022’s most enriching aural experience

14. Et Moriemur – Tamashii no Yama: An album that may not feel as heavy musically as you would expect but as an emotional and grieving gut punch, then this is incredible. The judicious use of piano lends a really emotional atmosphere, while there is more than enough quiet introspective parts of the album to drift through amongst the granite riffing. I love how different from my expectations it turned out to be, and how positive an experience that was.

13. Monasterium – Cold Are the Graves: I feel like the world of proper epic doom struggles to find real champions in this day and age, with the genre tending to roll downhill towards death/doom and funeral doom. But if Monasterium have anything to do with it, there will always be a champion of the grand, striding thunder, wielding mighty riffs and powerful vocals. ‘Cold Are the Graves’ is that champion’s weapon of choice, and potent it surely is. All hail!

12. Venom Prison – Erebos: This isn’t just a glowing sermon of ‘Erebos’, this is an apology. I’m really sorry Venom Prison for having no idea who you were until this year. That is my failing and I am fixing it immediately. ‘Erebos’ is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year, a brilliant and subversive collaboration between bare-faced savagery and heartbreaking melancholy and melody. The UK’s latest new hope?

11. Helvellyn – The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly: ‘The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly’ pays tribute to all that is ‘old fashioned’ in black metal but in all the best ways. Scathing, rasping vocals? Check. Frostbitten riffs cascading from snow covered mountain tops? Check. An innately bleak atmosphere? Check. I fucking KNEW this band were something special, turns out all I needed was patience and some extra long lasting corpse paint. Take an oath to Helvellyn’s black light and let it bathe you in darkness.

10. Risingfall – Rise or Fall: Every year, one classic heavy metal band really gets to me and crashes into my top ten. Last year it was Ültra Raptör, 2022 it is Risingfall. ‘Rise or Fall’ is a shit ton of fun if you’re into classic metal and I love Risingfall’s energy, their enthusiasm and their execution of anthemic metal laden with hooks, solos and a love for the genre. Massive, dumb fun for all the family!

9. Live Burial – Curse of the Forlorn: ‘Curse of the Forlorn’ is a supreme regurgitation of the band’s career up to this point, taking everything learned in almost a decade of life and creating a masterpiece of modern death metal. It isn’t too shiny, it isn’t too technical, but it’s full of heart and soul. Diseased heart and someone else’s soul perhaps, but it doesn’t stop ‘Curse of the Forlorn’ being one of 2022’s death metal triumphs. Live Burial have fucking done it again. Stop it lads, it’s getting embarrassing at this point

8. Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture: ‘Hostile Architecture’ is a record that I had to stop and rewind sections numerous times, as I was always hearing bits I didn’t comprehend the first time. An invigorating shot in the arm for experimental black metal, Ashenspire’s work is beguiling, shocking and utterly enthralling at every turn. You won’t get it first time. But third or fourth time you’ll unlock the true genius underneath the complexity. Superb.

7. Tyrannus – Unslayable: ‘Unslayable’ is an absolute beast of a record, bringing together everything I’ve enjoyed about Tyrannus in the past and cranking it up a notch. The leap in songwriting and execution from their great but raw debut is amazing, and speaks to a band only gaining in power and ability. I’m glad I hitched myself to the Tyrannus bandwagon early, but I could never have foreseen the behemoth of progressive blackened deaththrash they are about to become. ‘Mon in folks, the fires of Hades are warm fer ye.

6. Sisphyean – Colours of Faith: ‘Colours of Faith’ will strike you immediately with its vibrant album cover, but the music inside is as black and cold as the heartless void of space. Balancing intensity and atmosphere with striking ease, Sisyphean’s work is savage, harrowing and emotionally draining, imploring you to invest your body and soul into their dark arts for a taste of pure black metal ecstasy.By the time you get through that final track, Sisyphean will have left an indelible mark on your 2022. This is an essential crafting

5. Boris – W: The companion piece to 2021’s ‘NO’, this shows Boris at their most introspective, emotive and ethereal. Touching upon their entire stylistic repetoire from ambient, drone, metal and beyond, their first release of 2022 was a staggeringly fragile glimpse at one of rock’s most important bands. And I was daft enough to think they couldn’t beat it…

4. Tzompantli – Tlazcaltiliztli: This is astonishing; as grindingly slow and devastating as anything you’ll hear this year, but with plenty of up tempo death metal destruction too. The whole album just heaves with abyssal weight, crushing your life from your veins with each damning riff. Tzompantli are a must watch band in the future, and this is the best debut record of 2022, no mistake.

3. Kurokuma – Born of Obsidian: If I had to describe this in one sentence, imagine that ancient temple of death in Alien vs Predator, but as sound, not as a backdrop to a terrible movie. Dragging up eldritch, tribal monstrosities and injecting them with a sense of venom and grace, Kurokuma seem to have made a suitable number of sacrifices to the Jaguar Gods and have been granted the skills to gift us this. ‘Born of Obsidian’ is a record that understands the balance between weighty riffs and weighty emotions, and therefore is spellbinding.

2. Darkthrone – Astral Fortress: If anyone ever tells you that modern Darkthrone isn’t as essential as their classic trilogy, they’re out of their fucking mind. Is it the sound they helped form and pioneer? No, not really even close. Is it the sound of a band that has no right still being this relevant and excellent after over 30 years? Yes it is. This ‘old metal’ approach that has characterised the band’s last decade or two has left tattered classics in its wake, and ‘Astral Fortress’ is just as essential as anything Darkthrone have ever crafted into those deep frozen woods. We all live in the shadow of their horns, and we will never see their likes again when they are gone. If my favourite bnd of all time hadn’t released a belter, this would’ve been number one.

1. Boris – Heavy Rocks (2022): I could write for eons about how important this band have been for me personally, and the journeys they’ve taken me but the simplest action is to just listen. Listen to a band who still sound as vital today as they did 30 years ago. A band whose exploration and experimentation with sound has proven to be so influential and like no other. When you’ve gone and done all that, you can write as many albums with the same name as you want. ‘Heavy Rocks 2022’ is a pure expression of Boris; Wata coaxing ribbons of exhilarating guitar melodies from the ether, Atsuo smashing that drumkit like a man possessed and the propulsive, impulsive bass of Takeshi. There’s nobody like them, and there never will be

Review: The Wolves of Avalon – Y Gododdin

Review by Sandre the Giant

Based on the tales of the Gododdin, an ancient pagan tribe of Northern England and the epic poem about them, ‘Y Gododdin’ is the newest record from British pagan metallers The Wolves of Avalon. I first came across this band on their excellent 2014 record ‘Boudica’s Last Stand’, but I haven’t heard much since so I am looking forward to what this has in store for me. It is out now through Godreah Records.

‘Y Gododdin’ depicts the Battle of Catraeth, one of the final battles before the Germanic settlers forced the Celtic races of Britain into extinction, and opener ‘Through the Murdering Night’ sets the scene with cold clean guitar melody and spoken word before an infectious pagan metal stomp takes over, preparing us for the onslaught of battle to come. I assume that it is the words of the poet Aneirin, who wrote the original ‘Y Gododdin’ in the 6th century? ‘Men of Gododdin’ features one of many guest appearances on the record, being Hoest from Taake (others include members of Drudkh, Forefather and Aklash), and Metatron’s eccentric vocal style immediately sets The Wolves of Avalon apart. This is a stirring folk metal anthem, steeping in dark history and grimness but never losing its pagan, folk melody edge.

The Wolves of Avalon have always woven olden melodies into their music, and the majestic thunder of ‘The Shining Company’ gallops with a soaring pagan fervour towards an epic conclusion. I feel like ‘Y Gododdin’ is the most melodic and epic work that The Wolves have done thus far, and their sound is definitely swelling with the power of the ancient tales. ‘Dead Men’s Cloaks’ is grandiose and melancholic, never quite miserable but you can feel the sadness in the melodies about what had been lost to us. My initial impression that this had really grown in melodic scope is confirmed by beautiful closer ‘Is This How It’s Meant to Be?’, which plays out like an epic blackened pagan power ballad. Weaving delicate acoustics around an impassioned storytelling opening, as heavier guitar appears it loses nothing of this tapestry and tale that has been woven.

‘Y Gododdin’ is a record worthy of its subject, replete with passionate pagan tales and evocative, authentic sounding folk in the metal. This is not your beer swilling, horn blowing folk metal. This is a powerfully bleak retelling of ancient Brythonic history through the eyes of some of its lost people, and The Wolves of Avalon make it so stirring and glorious it would be hard to not to feel invested. An unmistakably unique outfit in British black metal, The Wolves of Avalon have shown why once again.

https://www.facebook.com/thewolvesofavalon

https://godreah.bandcamp.com/album/y-gododdin