If there’s one album from 2023 that I was sorry about not making my best of 2023 list it was The Impending Fall of the Stars, the sophomore album by French one-man black metal act Inherits the Void; that album placed a modern veil of spacey atmospherics over a more traditional melodic black metal backbone with the result being a very solid release that had me eager to hear more. Now multi-instrumentalist A. is back just a year and a half later with Scars of Yesteryears, a release that dials back the spaciness of its predecessor in favor of more intense melodic death metal-inspired riffs and dynamic songwriting — the finished product is not only a major leap forward in the evolution of Inherits the Void, but one of the finest melodic black metal albums I’ve heard this decade.

Scars of Yesteryears pulls no punches right from the get-go with opener “Celestial Antler”; some brief twin guitar harmonies and intense drum fill that descend right into thunderous machine gun bass drums, blast beats, and continuously rolling waves of black metal chords enhanced by splashes of synths. This is all fine and good, but so far isn’t too different from Fall of the Stars material. A. doesn’t give us too long to ponder if the album will be very different, as an acoustic guitar interlude lights the way for a truly epic dual guitar/synth melody and some frenetic death metal-oriented riffing — not to sell Scars short, but this will come to more generally characterize the rest of the album. Gone are the extended moments of reverb-heavy Mare Cognitum-style interstellar bliss; on Scars the riffs keep coming and do. not. stop. First single “The Orchard of Grief” goes even more down the melodic death metal route with riffs anchored in low chugging, yet still managing to crawl their way to the surface with chord triads. This track also features the first of several moments that absolutely tickle my brain every time I hear it; an abrupt change to a markedly more technical riff inversion that almost feels like something out of a tech thrash or prog metal album. For a subgenre that can easily get itself bogged down in classic tropes, I love to see this type of adventurousness in melodic black songwriting.

As if the higher energy wasn’t enough, the next biggest improvement from Fall of the Stars is the production; the former had a distant, robotic sound that absolutely suited the theme of the album but was a bit lacking in some areas, particularly the drums (I was honestly surprised to learn they were not programmed, although they didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the album). The Scars mastering job courtesy of the legend himself, Dan Swanö, improves upon every element in A.’s arsenal tremendously; the bass is given a more prominent role in the overall sound while still allowing it to hold the low end (and for some nice fills to be heard in the process), giving the guitar riffs equally more warmth and bite, and for the synths to tie all these elements together when needed. Swanö is responsible for the definitive version of the greatest melodic black metal album of all time (Sacramentum’s Far Away from the Sun), so it should be no surprise that Scars of Yesteryears is in the most capable hands.

What makes the aforementioned Far Away from the Sun the peak of this subgenre is the incredible ability it has to inflect melody in subtle, ever-changing ways while still remaining 100% rooted in dark, melancholic black metal. Scars of Yesteryears has a much brighter sound than that classic ’90s album of course, but it follows the same school of thought in terms of songwriting; continuously craft new riffs and transitions that feel natural, remain true to your core sound, but still surprise the listener — just take the incredible trio of songs that close out the album as perfect examples. After a break that could otherwise signal the end of the song, the title track spends its last minute alternating between a headbanger riff just as catchy as that on Fall of the Stars‘ “Sullen Laments of the Wanderers” (that got me to take notice of Inherits the Void in the first place) and an grandiose synth/blast beat feast. “L’Eternelle Course Des Astres” (probably my favorite song on the album) takes an even catchier riff and does something relatively simple with the tempo, but it hits so hard every time I listen. As for “The Endless Glow of Twilight,” you’ll just have to find out for yourself why it’s easily the best closing track I’ve heard in a long time.

With Scars of Yesteryears A. has crafted yet another genre-spanning album that does what extreme metal bands (those not content with staying in one lane at least) should aspire to: build upon their own material while taking inspiration from and paying due reverence to the forefathers of old. And if there’s one thing this album proves above all else, it’s that the Blue Black Metal Album Cover™ continues to reign supreme over all others. Any bedroom black metal act can choose such artwork, but only a select few are truly worthy of it. Inherits the Void certainly is — welcome a new forerunner in the melodic black metal of this era.

— Colin

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Scars of Yesteryears will be available June 21 on Avantgarde Music. For more information on Inherits the Void, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.