Vampyric Winter are hailing from Spain, formed in 2021 and being relatively new band in the scene, but members played and are playing in many other bands and projects. This is their second full length. What to expect here? There are seven songs on this opus and the music is mainly raw black metal played with lots of blast beats but also some atmospheric mid tempo parts reminding me a lot of nineties black metal being my favorite bm period. The guitar deliver melancholic melodies and aggression at the same time and vocals are not typical bm screaming, rather growling and if you are into this music you will understand a lot what is being sung about. Lyrics are in English and deal with vampirism, darkness and death. My personal favorites are A Gift Of True Suffering(The Death Is Complete) and also Thy Unholy Presence. This record makes you feel like you stand at the ruins of the castle on the hill on windy night with some presence watching you. Melancholy plus aggression equals great black metal.
A bit older release but it doesn’t matter. Archgoat are Finnish veterans with their roots going back even to 1989. Formed by Ritual Butcherer and Lord Angelslayer, this entity deliver their vision of apocalyptic black death metal with Satanic themes and thus create a vision of fire, void, blackness and utter destruction. The music of Archgoat is bestial, not unlike Blasphemy and similar contemporary bands, there are some synth ritualistic undertones but this is darkness itself. Thundering bass and guitars blistering with hate, coupled with Lord Angelslayer’s death metal growling rather than your usual black metal screaming. There are four songs on this one, all fist in the eye of nazarene and his minions. Songs like Nightside Prayer or The Semen of Anti-Mastery are going to bring you to war eternally.
From Upper Austria comes Todesschrei, with their first full length opus. This one contains eight songs with titles and lyrics in German language and the music of Todesschrei is basically a mixture of raw anguished black metal and slower more depressive black with songs such as Im Herbst meines Lebens, Der Tod ruft mich, Mein letzter Weg giving good picture what this opus is about. Production is old school, raw yet atmospheric with aggression giving enough place to melancholy and guitar melody possible only in black metal. Vocals are screaming and tortured but fit perfectly. My personal favorite of all eight songs is Dem Wahn verfallen which starts with wolf’s howl and wind and is the most atmospheric song and melancholic yet aggressive song on this record. This is a strong debut.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 