Years ago, when Panzerfaust announced their plan to release a tetralogy of thematically and musically connected albums, I was flooded by excitement, having been mightily impressed by their excellent 2018 EP The Lucifer Principle, but also feared that the band may have signed up for an insurmountable task that would at some stage exhaust their creativity. In hindsight, you can call me a fool of little faith, as Panzerfaust proceeded to release chapter after chapter of monumental black metal that portrayed the dark side of humanity vividly and with immense emotional impact. But the question at hand is, do they stick the landing with The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion? Oh yes, they do, they do.

Panzerfaust have always excelled at delivering brutal walls of sound and monstrous volleys, summoning charnel atmosphere and channeling absolute bleakness, like the sonic equivalents of endless waves of humans thrown into a meat grinder. At the same time, the band has displayed an uncanny ability to create haunting and ethereal melodies to accentuate the ripples and shock waves of the all-engulfing devastation, which is on full, majestic display on Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion, an album that often skillfully eschews the easy trope of simpleminded khornate brutality and often feels like a mournful hymn of grief and resignation at the end of human civilization (the trance-inducing chants in the background of “Occam’s Fucking Razor” serve as one example of the careful attention to building atmosphere). That is not to say that Panzerfaust have toned down their rage and disgust and suddenly become all flabby and resigned as the end draws near. On the contrary, they proceed to heretofore unheard levels of barraging intensity and frenzied urgency with “Even the Ground is Hostile,” a song that stands out as an absolute highlight of the album and the entire tetralogy, with one of the most memorable and earth-shattering riffs of this year. On the aforementioned “Occam’s Fucking Razor,” Alexander Kartashov’s powerful drumming breaks through the chanting and paves the way for a thrashing pit-starter of a bridge. Elsewhere, patient build-ups of tension pay off beautifully: over the the course of “The Damascene Conversions” Brock Van Dijk’s initially downcast lead guitar melodies are bolstered and inspired by Ahmet lhvani’s thrilling bağlama runs and eventually swell into a defiant and rousing force that leads the song to its cathartic conclusion. The epic closing track “To Shadow Zion (No Sanctuary)” races into the long night seething, setting aflame everything in its path.

Panzerfaust’s pulverizing music has always been enriched and elevated by meticulous, far-ranging study of literary, philosophical and theological themes, sources and influences, this time drawing inspiration from the writings of Carl Jung, sampling and quoting Edward R. Murrow and Cormac McCarthy, and traversing across Terra Damnata and Gehenna, toward the Taboric light and the elusive Zion that remains shrouded by the Jungian shadow. This imbues Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion with palpable personality, intellectual richness and mythological character, a culmination of the world-building and cosmology that has taken place across the tetralogy and concludes in such an evocative tableau of humanity’s collective death drive and failure. In addition to the thematic cohesion across the tetralogy, listeners with sharp ears will recognize and appreciate the musical connective tissue between the albums, which further consolidates the sense and lived-in experience of a decaying expanded universe.

Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion is a brilliant, funereal and devastating closing chapter of an highly ambitious undertaking, delivered by a band that is operating at stratospheric altitudes of artistic expression. The now-completed tetralogy forms an unforgettable journey deep into the bowels of hell on earth to witness the moment when the heart of darkness stops beating. With the resounding success of the four chapters of The Suns of Perdition under their bullet belt, the next step in Panzerfaust’s exalted career will surely be glorious to behold, knowing that the abyss will gaze back and nod in approval

— Zyklonius

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The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion will be available November 22 from Eisenwald Records. For more information on Panzerfaust, visit their Facebook page.