Cold icewinds sweep my weightless body over the bridge to unknown lands. The fog is thick before me as I fall into the unknown realms. The darkness falls before me, as I watch my body descend into the ground. I am far away, I am far away from the sun…
New year, new column: dark music for dark times. The legacy of black metal stretches back over four decades at this point, yet the musical journey continues each and every day as new albums and artists enter the unlit, hallowed halls of the genre. Seeking an outlet to not only give new albums exposure but to satisfy my desire to talk about older releases I’ve started Beyond All Horizons. Named for a track from my own north star for the heights black metal can reach—or cold depths, rather—Sacramentum’s Far Away from the Sun, this column will feature a new or upcoming release alongside an older album (could be older than a month, a year, a decade, or more), and a hand-picked track of the week.
This first iteration of this column features a new album in the ’90s throwback style from Dutch solo act Hagetisse, epic spirituality from Switzerland’s Ophanim, and an exercise in nightside melodicism from Sweden’s Greve. Let’s enter the space beyond and reflect on past and present with some excellent black metal offerings.
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New & Trve: Hagetisse – To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance
To get the best idea of what To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance sounds like, in that gap between the trees envision a wolf howling at the cosmic beauty of that nebula. Why? Hagetisse perform a pretty solid attempt at recapturing the sound of Ulver’s Nattens Madrigal on this album. Dual guitars (one in each channel) unleash a furious assault of classic tremolo-picked riffs, often harmonizing with each other to give an underlying sense of melodicism. One channel might hold a single note while the other continues the speedily picked trail of notes, something classic Ulver fans will quickly recognize. In a departure from the Nattens Madrigal sound, however, are spacey synths, laid thick on tracks like “De Ogen Van De Dood Zijn Nooit Zielloos.” Despite being described in the promo material as black metal “like the last 30 years never happened” I was pleasantly surprised by the schmaltzy, catchy melodies of “Allesvernietigende Leegte” and “Self-Decimation”, which would not be out of place on a modern blackgaze album. This convergent evolution between old and new styles means fans of both sounds will likely find something to enjoy.
Hagetisse is one project among many from Maurice de Jong, best known as the man behind the experimental black metal/noise act Gnaw Their Tongues; an unsurprising connection based solely on the vocals. Throat-shredding screams and breathy howls are what’s showcased here (“Mijn vriend de dood, kom zacht binnen”), feeling much more Anaal Nathrakh than ’90s Garm. The production of the programmed drums is a bit mechanical, the cymbals in particular (without reaching anywhere near industrial territory); a slight clash of sounds, maybe, but the end result works out just fine. It’s also nowhere near the ear-piercing lo-fi quality of the original Nattens Madrigal master, in case that comparison had you fearing for your ears. To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance is a worthy listen for second-wave fans looking for a more cosmic and catchy tweak on those classic riffs or a post-black metal listener seeking something more archaic, and a great way to kick this column off.
To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance is available now through Void Wanderer Productions. For more information on Hagetisse, check out the Gnaw their Tongues Instagram page.
Old & Cold: Ophanim – Tämpelskläng
This first feature of an older album is a mea culpa for not reviewing this album as it deserved upon release in November 2023. . . I didn’t discover Tämpelskläng until about a year after its release. Ophanim is another project from the collective Jünger Tumilon (known as Helvetic Underground Committee at the time of release) featuring the duo of Meister Tekel and Voidgaunt, who have raised their own musical bar over the past few years with incredible releases from Wyrgher, Arkhaaik, and Arrows. Within the epic, expansive breadths atmospheric black metal has reached throughout its existence—from Summoning to Paysage d’Hiver to Wolves in the Throne Room—Tämpelskläng sounds like nothing else I have ever heard. Its four 10+-minute tracks carry an air of mysticism, grandeur, and ancient spirituality, feeling like it came from an entirely different place and time than our own. . . all achieved with just standard metal instrumentation. The single element making this possible is Meister Tekel’s haunting background guitars that don’t sound like guitars at all, but an otherworldly, ethereal organ thanks to an octaver (and lots of reverb, I would assume). I only learned the facts behind the nature of this sound recently from a Jünger Tumilon post, and it makes me appreciate the album even more. This sound perfectly ties into the themes and concept of Ophanim as they are explicitly inspired by Judeo-Christian mythology, the band name itself derived from the wheeled, many-eyed beings described by Ezekiel (referred to elsewhere as angels). Be not afraid!
While the effects laden guitars are the main draw, Tämpelskläng wouldn’t be what it is without superior composition and arrangement of the other instruments. Voidgaunt’s propulsive drumming has a ritualistic feel throughout when not playing blast beats, and Tekel’s vocals are an amalgamation of deep, throaty roars and an assortment of chants, shouts, and hums that place the album in an ancient time and place. “Fiebertraum” borrows its first melody from the “Hurrian hymn” (the oldest written piece of music) and the results of this ~3500 year musical bridge are glorious; Tekel’s echoing shouts of “Yahweh!”, the chord change about six and a half minutes in to give the song a distinctly Middle Eastern feel. . . from what I can gather the lyrics concern Moses and the burning bush, and this song is every bit as epic as the feature of that story in The Prince of Egypt. My personal highlight is “Uf goldige Schwinge” and the way the guitars swell and fall like the best movie score you can imagine before settling down into a lull of warm bass and an ethereal choir. . . all before swelling again. This song is dynamic in a way all other atmospheric black metal acts should take note of.
Tämpelskläng sounds like it was recorded in exactly the place its cover depicts, a grand cathedral erected to a dead, ancient religion. I was on a massive Dune: Part II kick around the time when I discovered this album, and the overwhelming sense of scale and spiritual grandeur in the final hour of that film makes me feel the same way this album does; as if I’m experiencing something so much grander than myself, yielding an indescribable, spiritually moving experience. For all the horrors unleashed upon the world by those the album’s thematic inspirations politically motivate, from a purely mythological standpoint there is a wealth of beauty and awe to be found and Ophanim have done a tremendous job of tapping into that power. Tämpelskläng is described as being “created in a single spurt of inspiration and in a state of ecstasy,” and whether it came from the deep, primal recesses of the human mind or through the subconscious direction of something bigger than us (I place my bets on the former), the end result is something to truly behold.
Tämpelskläng is available now through Eisenwald. For more information on Ophanim, check out the Jünger Tumilon Instagram page.
Twilight Hour: Greve – “Lögnarens gryning, svältföddas bestar”
Ever since reviewing the latest album Bleknat bortom evig tid last month, I’ve been on a pretty consistent Greve kick. “Lögnarens gryning, svältföddas bestar” is the third track from the second full-length Föllo af svavel, lifvets dimridå which following their symphonic debut saw the band steer in a more melodic direction, beautifully executing this change on that album (and continued in a similar fashion on Bleknat). This isn’t very “riffy” black metal; instead, it sticks to a constant, multilayered cascade of chords and blast beats. The highlight of this song is the riff kicking off at 2:45, one of the most Far Away from the Sun–sounding sections I’ve heard thus far. . . I think it’s the alternating single-/double-kicks on one and three that seals the deal. Afterwards Swartadauþuz formulates a great feeling of escalation—despite keeping the tempo the same—by adding in some upper-register chords and lightly-placed keys. Like Hagetisse Greve may be somewhat focused on a singular aesthetic (admittedly very poor word choice, as there are many notes and they are arranged in fantastic ways!) but it’s an addictive sound that scratches an itch both mystical in atmosphere and polyphonic in composition, one that few other acts I’ve discovered (yet) are capable of doing so well.
Föllo af svavel, lifvets dimridå is available now from Purity Through Fire. For more information on Greve, check out their Encyclopedia Metallum page.
— Colin
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