What are a few of the foundational aspects of heavy metal that caused us to fall in love with the genre? Lightning fast riffs, forceful rhythms, powerful vocals and of course, blistering shred guitar solos. Black metal traditionally eschews the last trait, opting instead for blast beats, walls of sound, and overall atmosphere as some of the driving factors of the music. If there’s one metal subgenre that isn’t always prone to virtuosic soloing, black metal would probably be it; since their first release early last year Finland’s Moonlight Sorcery have looked to change that. The band’s debut full-length Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle is finally seeing the light of day, and brings with it technical prowess and classic bombast that both transcends the bounds of black metal and further establishes their place as one of the genre’s most intriguing new bands.

Moonlight Sorcery’s debut EP Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity hit my ears last year with icy riffs straight out of a Nordic blizzard, twinkling keyboards like snow on a moonlit night, and utterly perfect production that was just raw enough to not mask any aspects of the music, creating an atmosphere very evocative of ’90s symphonic/melodic black metal (of course the classic blue Nightside Eclipse/Far Away from the Sun-esque artwork certainly helped out with this comparison). The defining feature of the band, however, was the wild guitar soloing that both excelled in technicality while also dictating the flow of the music.

Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle sees lead guitarist and primary composer Loitsumestari Taikakallo pushing himself and the band to new heights with more technical riffing throughout and masterful soloing, both in terms of melody and playing abilities. Tracks like “The Secret of Streaming Blood” and “Fire Burns the Horizon” are defined by their solos — the latter in particular is a must-listen for lovers of virtuoso guitar. There’s even a lead guitar-focused instrumental track, the wonderfully named “The Moonlit Dance of the Twisted Jester’s Blood-Soaked Rituals.”

Assisting with the guitar wizardry is a much cleaner production job courtesy of the legendary Dan Swanö. While the mixing on Horned Lord may make the band more appetizing to non-black metal fans, some of the rawer magic from Frozen Eternity is lost with the more polished sound — the production on the aforementioned EP really gave the solos much greater impact. Yet as always when you listen to highly anticipated new music, there’s the tapering of expectations for what you want versus what you receive. Frozen Eternity will always exist on its own, and I’d still rather see a band push their sound elsewhere instead of just attempting (and possibly failing) to repeat earlier success. And push their sound forward the band does, even outside of the realm of guitar solos. The intro of “Yönsilmä” features some multilayered clean guitar interplay, and penultimate track “Into the Silvery Shadows of Night” is probably the biggest highlight of the album — it serves as Moonlight Sorcery’s version of an epic, emotional power ballad. The surprisingly vulnerable guitar/synth melody that takes center stage in the final few minutes of the song will surely be stuck in my head for a long time to come.

What’s most compelling about Horned Lord — ostensibly a black metal album — is that in many ways it’s not. If it weren’t for Ruttomieli’s utterly venomous vocal performance and healthy doses of blast beats throughout, would this even qualify as such? Perhaps, but it more often resembles a more extreme take on power metal. Just as their now-defunct countrymen Children of Bodom did with melodic death metal, Moonlight Sorcery step outside the boundaries of their own genre with all the talent of veteran musicians, while effectively harnessing the bombast of classic heavy metal. Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle is a triumphant full-length, and hopefully just the first step in a long journey.

— Colin

---

Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle will be available September 29 on Avantgarde Music. For more information on Moonlight Sorcery, visit their Facebook and Instagram pages.

---