In Dante’s Inferno, the second circle begins the proper punishment of Hell, a place where “no thing gleams.” It is reserved for those overcome with Lust, where carnal appetites hold sway over reason. In Nine Circles, it’s where we do shorter reviews of new (ish) albums that share a common theme.
We’re closing in on the end of 2023 and it’s starting to get chillier here in the northern hemisphere, so there’s no better time to highlight a couple more new black metal albums before years’ end. Also, despite the stress of the holiday season and needing to go through all of the music I’ve already discovered this year to put an AOTY list together, I’ve decided to keep checking out new music. Valdrin and Nornír take clear inspiration from Swedish and Norwegian black metal of the ’90s respectively, but manage to throw in more than enough surprises to make their mark on black metal of the here and now. Let us descend and find out whether or not these albums are worth checking out this late into the year.
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Pretty much every modern band citing ’90s Swedish melodic black metal as inspiration will name drop Sacramentum, Vinterland, and Dawn in their influences — more often than not they don’t reach the heights those bands achieved, in particular the first. Lo and behold, Valdrin has come to lay all middling meloblack to waste with their fourth full-length Throne of the Lunar Soul. As inspired as they are by the aforementioned Swedish acts, Valdrin go above and beyond with displays of raw technical ability and more than a few songwriting tendencies more akin to prog metal. How many black metal albums have extended sections in 5/8 or 6/8? Ever present are bouncy leads that you could imagine finding themselves somewhere on the more technical side of thrash, and constantly shifting tempos and evolving riffs that demonstrate how this is much more than run-of-the-mill Dissection worship; just take “Sojourner Wolf” as an example of how a single melodic line is transformed over and over.
As if the great riffs on display weren’t enough, the band incorporates a healthy degree of symphonic elements and clean vocals without getting anywhere close to the more extreme cheese you might find in the genre — here the synths and cleans serve to fill in space in softer parts, or to accentuate epic moments like the climax of “Vagrant in the Chamber of Night” or the power ballad-esque title track. And epic this album truly is in both sound and scale; not only does it continue the self-created Ausadjur Mythos that began with 2014 debut album Beyond the Forest, but it clocks in at a whopping 73 minutes. Save for the outro, only three tracks are under the six-minute mark, with five pushing near or past eight minutes. This will no doubt turn away potential listeners, but if you have the patience for it I can assure you that there’s a wealth of great material on Throne of the Lunar Soul. Stormkeep and Moonlight Sorcery truly have a worthy challenger for the throne of melodic black metal that looks to the future by taking inspiration from the past.
Throne of the Lunar Soul is available now on Blood Harvest. For more information on Valdrin, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.
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In a similar vein to the numerous bands taking inspiration from the Swedish meloblack of the late ’90s, so too are there far many bands out there that end up as little more than clones of Norwegian acts like Immortal, Tsjuder, or early Taake. Skuld is the final act in Nornír’s Three Nornes trilogy, detailing the Norse deities who control fate and tend to the world tree, Yggdrasil. The band’s brand of black metal is not too dissimilar from those who ride in the slipstream of the aforementioned acts, but there’s a few elements on display that make them stand out amongst the rabble. While rooted almost exclusively in black metal, other elements present themselves — the biggest standout would be in the band’s cover of Wardruna’s iconic “Helvegen.” A clean vocal and acoustic guitar intro pave way to blast beats and chords replicating the progression in the original song; it’s nothing too unexpected for a black metal cover of this classic, but the interplay between vocalist Lethian’s cleans and the trem-picked guitar lead in the finale helps to save the song. This manner of lead is a constant throughout the album, and helps to give a suitable dose of atmosphere for such a mythologically rooted album.
Unfortunately aside from the Wardruna cover and a trio of interludes drenched in ambience, there’s not too much else in the way of Nordic folk elements — I would’ve liked to see this aspect of their sound expanded upon. Nevertheless Nornír do a solid enough job of crafting riffs that mesh well with the more rocking beats that often appear (when there aren’t blast beats happening of course). Lethian’s harsh rasps also elevate the rest of the sonic aspects through sheer venom. Skuld certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but there’s just enough going on here to differentiate them from others in this style — the threads of fate seem to be woven in Nornír’s favor so far.
Skuld will be available December 1 on Northern Silence Productions. For more information on Nornír, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.
— Colin
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