The undead never seem to stay at rest for too long, do they? True to form, after a short break following 2022’s sublime For Thine Is The Kingdom Of The Flesh, the vampyric wraith Krvna Vatra Smrt hath risen once again with a new EP – one that lays bare the true, rotting face of God. Behold, the bold glories and ecclesiastical tragedies of The Rhythmus Of Death Eternal.
If (like we filthy acolytes here at BMD) you’ve been feverishly following the relatively short yet brilliantly stratospheric trajectory of this Australian black metal project, you’ll no doubt be aware just how fucking GOOD that previous album was. Whilst this fresh kill – comprised of three new tracks and two still-bleeding covers – might appear, by nature, more of a stop-gap release before the next overwhelming full-length explosion of rapturous, ensanguined magniloquence, it does put to rest any woefully misguided fears about an inability to maintain the quality and momentum already gathered, or any lacking of effort when the stakes (pun not intended) might not be as high as they would be for an official album. Instead, continuing the more religious overtones that have carefully developed across the short life of the project and pushing them ever forwards into the glittering abyss, these tracks are the equal of any previously released… and might even top them.
For those tragic souls as yet unaware of the deviltries and demonries scrawled in Krvna‘s wretched book of bloody shadows, opening track ‘Endless Monument’ is an exquisite introduction. Melding true metal/Bathory-esque atmospheric touches with a dizzyingly layered, baroque-influenced guitar and drum onslaught that sounds almost like the French hypermelodic beast of Sühnopfer was crawling through graveyards instead of fancy medieval castles, the sound is busy, even intoxicating; sometimes to an initial point of seeming almost at odds with the intended emotion swirling within the complex compositions. Until you listen a little more then realise that it all makes perfect sense. Plus, after all, isn’t that the plight of the vampyre – a creature at odds with existence? Any mild surprise or dissonance this might create is part of the uniqueness of the project – nobody sounds exactly like Krvna.
Whilst the onrush of the instrumentation and melody is indeed the barbed pike that will likely impale the ebon hearts of many black metal fans who might discover the project, the power of Krvna‘s gravitational pull also lies within his mastery of composition, arrangement, songwriting and production. Consider track two, ‘A God’s Work’. Devastatingly effective, utterly gorgeous waves of 3/4-time agony roll over the listener as Krvna builds each passage to full effect, culminating in a lush solo and final, euphoric crescendo that shows off just how effortlessly adept he really is at this shit. A million other one-man bands try to execute songs like this; barely any of them do it as well. Especially when the track is contemplated holistically, taking into account the penned prose about the weakness of the feeble, absent God – it becomes a truly awe-inspiring work (which is said without a hint of hyperbole). ‘What Great Lengths’ is then another blistering incursion that’s given new depth and appreciation by once again reading the lyrics; upon which the delirious mixture of a coruscating torrent of scorn and the bemused apathy that a watcher of the millennia might feel when witnessing the pathetic machinations of humankind shall be fully, blindingly illuminated.
…and THEN, the (physical copy only!) cover tracks. Abigor and Bathory – it cannot be said that Krvna ever does things by halves. Tackling the mighty Austrians is no small feat, yet Krvna manages to remain faithful to the resonance of the 1995 original ‘As Astral Images Darken Reality’ whilst simultaneously and subtly guiding its magic towards his own, slightly more contemporary ends. After which, Bathory‘s legendary ‘Man Of Iron’ from 1996’s Blood On Ice undergoes even more of a transformation. Already covered countless times by countless bands, Krvna‘s approach is one which unlocks the latent “black metal” within the track and makes it once of the finest to take a seat in the exalted halls of Bathory covers thus far. A worthy pair of interpretations, indeed (although, as a jestful aside, we might have expected something from Blood Fire Death, given what Krvna Vatra Smrt translates to from Croatian).
In short: Krvna‘s The Rhythmus Of Death Eternal, really, is everything I could want from an EP, and I struggle to find noteworthy fault. Three killer tracks that stand imperious and proud in ineffable grandeur, with a couple of bonus delights seamlessly grafted onto the end for the true adepts. Not an inch of laziness; pure mastery of his craft. It’s also another flawless victory for the undead creature himself.
Listen closely… do you hear that? Death is here. Death is eternal. Death is always enveloping us… just like the all-consuming black wings of the vampyre. Hails.
Well folks, it’s been a helluva year in black metal. Just like last year. And the one before that… and the one prior, and so on. Seems like a damn near impossible task at this point to keep up with all of the amazing music produced on a weekly basis in our obsidian corner of the metal world, let alone try to sift through and pick out those gems which, for each of us, really stand out and shine with that blackened light. Yet, here we are. End of the year list time again. Aside from borrowing from a handful of reviews I’ve already done this year, I’m just gonna start writing about the shit that I liked. Let’s call it … a memoir. My black metal top 50 memoir of 2021, ready? Here we go.
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ALBUM OF THE YEAR
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CÂN BARDD (Switzerland). My word, do I love that Devoured By The Oak album, currently listening on a daily basis! Came out towards the end of the year (November), but by my third playthrough I knew that it was in serious danger of usurping WINDFAERER for the number one spot of the year, a band which had laid claim to that position since like July or so. And I think it has done that. Not only did Devoured By The Oak manage, to some extent, to shove aside all other 2021 considerations, it also fuckkkking annihilates the previous CÂN BARDD discography, by a considerable degree IMO, reaching the grandiose folky realms already occupied by kings like SAOR, BORKNAGAR and WINTERSUN… and this somewhat sounds like a combination of those bands. Every song is a goddamn epic, and everything is perfectly timed and placed, all the somewhat awkward, clunky aspects of previous albums (which I never really got into at all) completely streamlined, cleaned up, and dialed in, particularly the drums. On top of that, it was released at the perfect time for me, the turn of the season into winter, right when I am in the mood to listen to exactly this sort of thing. It’s. Goddamn. Beautiful.
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TIER ONE
[five creations of black art]
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And WINDFAERER’s (US, New Jersey) Breaths of Elder Dawns? It is excellent as well, right up there and by far my most listened to album of the year. Kudos to them for damn near achieving, with only violin (and a few extras here and there), the epic levels for which many other bands require an entire orchestra. They went from being a pretty good black metal band with good violin to really taking it to the next level in terms of composition and complexity and weaving it all together. They still very clearly have a black metal foundation, but there’s a lot of artistic, avant-garde elements which really make it massive, make it a masterpiece, yet without getting too off track. I think that with this album they have really broken free and reached a new pinnacle, not only in comparison to their own previous work but in comparison to any relevant subgenres of extreme metal in general: melodic black metal, post black metal, progressive metal, et cetera, with comparisons also to SAOR but additionally acts like NE OBLIVISCARIS, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, and PANOPTICON.
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FUNERAL MIST (Sweden). Can’t fuck with FUNERAL MIST. Surprise release with Deiform at the end of the year, but no surprise at all that it takes a top spot for me. Filled with blazing, unhinged riffs, unparalleled vocal variety, infernal blasting on all aspects of the drum kit, and a healthy dose of the religiously macabre, Mortuus delivers exactly what we would expect of black metal orthodoxy. Perhaps not as hellish as Devilry, not as blasphemous as Salvation, not as twisted and grotesque as Maranatha, not quite as contemplative as Hekatomb. Closest to sound to the previous two, but Deiform is darker and with more fire. It overtakes them on the speed/aggression factor and ultimately probably stands above Salvation as well. You cannot fuck with FUNERAL MIST.
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The atmospheric/symphonic subgenre, like the folk/pagan selections (overtaken by CAN BARDD), was the victim of a late coupe. While ANGUIS DEI had hung on since the beginning of the year, right at the end I became completely infatuated with the complex epic / symphonic / progressive / atmospheric project ETHEREAL SHROUD (England). Trisagion is made up of three massive tracks (four on the physical releases) which total out to almost 65 minutes (closer to 80 on the physical), each of which are comprised of three movements. It is beautiful and powerful, bright and melancholic, creative and devastating, contemplative and expansive all at once. Incredible release that I am just starting to scrape the surface of.
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ANGUIS DEI’s (Japan) Angeist is a goddamn masterpiece. Man there is a LOT going on. A ton of variety within an orthodoxically satanic, symphonic, avant-garde scaffold, successfully managing to combine, intentionally or unintentionally, many of the attributes of the very best sounds that symphonic black metal has ever had to offer. It sounds “classic” within the SBM vein, but the staggering amount of variability within that scaffold and overall cohesion is what really makes it a force to be reckoned with. It’s like… when the fucking five Power Rangers come together to make that big fucking robot? This is that robot, the rangers are CRADLE OF FILTH, EMPEROR, VESANIA, ANOREXIA NERVOSA and ROTTING CHRIST and if you are a fan of those bands then this album is essential. Every instrument is masterfully utilized and the vocals are just maniacal.
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MAQUAHUITL (US, Tennessee) – Con Su Pistola en La Mano [ep] is hard-hitting, galloping, cutthroat southwestern bandido black metal. It’s practically impossible to not fall back on WAYFARER, but best as a contrast instead of a comparison: MAQUAHUITL is faster, dirtier, more focused, more aggressive, and more capital-B-and-M-Black-Metal, and would be better compared in sound to DARK WATCHER or VITAL SPIRIT or, even better, something more orthodox like SKAN or GLORIOR BELLI, yet allowing an even more cross-cultural elements to permeate the music, with Latin guitars, wind instrumentation, and cumbia percussion. The album revolves around the legend of Mexican outlaw and folk hero Gregorio Cortez attacking, killing, and evading American Texas Rangers on the Mexican-American border, June of 1901.
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TIER TWO
[ten creations of black art]
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FERRITERIUM (France) gave us a fucking excellent second album entitled Calvaire, which is very straightforward and clean, but not particularly innovative, original, raw, or any other extreme. Nonetheless, in some sort of way this album is… -perfect-. No frills classic melodic black metal with riffs that literally do not quit, there’s not a single thing about it that I do not like.
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A new discovery for me was the post/progressive WOMAN IS THE EARTH (US, Minnesota), with new album Dust of Forever, which manages to be surprisingly rabid, dynamic, and exalted all at once, achieving a breathtaking level of beauty without using any synth at all, as far as I can tell. The ever-soaring, unrelentingly dynamic nature of it somewhat reminds me of stuff like SUHNOPFER or AORLAC possibly, although WITE is a bit more… ‘post-black’? At any rate, the melody and somewhat lighter aspect of it helps me keep up with the twists and turns.
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VORTEX OF END’s (France) Abhorrent Fervor is a slightly death-tinged, powerful, rabid yet artistic orthodox black metal album with an array of exciting elements, not least of which the goddamn vocals (handled by no less than three members) accounting for the insane variety of screams, roars, growls, yells, chants, whispers, and cleans. FFOs include other French acts like AOSOTH, ANTAEUS, TEMPLE OF BAAL, and (definitely) ARKHON INFAUSTUS, but also (and maybe even more so) the unabashed horns-in-the-air rocking-fucking-black metal of MISÞYRMING’s Algleymi, a more muscular evolution of ASCENSION (particularly the auditory occult mysticism of Consolamentum), and the infernal, grinding-riff ferocity of Gaahl/King era GORGOROTH.
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Gonna admit that although I am (still!) having a bit of trouble absorbing it fully, I’m pretty damn intrigued by FYRNASK’s (Germany) new opus VII – Kenoma, which for me falls right in with the likes of the heavily meditative SCHAMMASCH and vividly ritualistic MEPHORASH, although it is more dissonant, dense and abstract than both.
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VVILDERNESS (Hungary). Significantly more of a banger than previous releases, As Above, So Below nonetheless manages to maintain the sublime Hungarian folk sounds which are completely unique to this band and meld them with a heightened momentum and aggression for a really cohesive listen. Although it is hard to beat the serene natural harmony of Devour the Sun (2018), I do think that I am enjoying this new one even more than 2020’s Dark Waters.
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You know who else got heavier? PANOPTICON (US, Minnesota). Fantastic right? Austin has always had that amazing Americana folk aspect and it’s in full effect with …And Again Into The Light, but as a whole the album is way heavier than I thought it would be, bringing in some doom and death elements, and so massive that I still feel like I’m just beginning to scrape the surface of that one. Fucking huge, and I love it.
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The INHERITS THE VOID (France) album Monolith of Light is stellar cosmic black metal. I absolutely love the cinematic, epic melodies on top of that speedy percussion, the chaotic swirling on the guitar layers, and the sheer immensity of everything that’s going on, all of the different simultaneous tracks and layers. There’s so many things about this that sound atmospheric, from the keyboards to multiple guitar tracks to the drums… I want to get to know this album well, to find all of those intricacies and nuances that I can tell are there but can’t possibly absorb without more playthroughs. FFO: MARE COGNITUM
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ARISTARCHOS (Scotland) gave us an excellent self-titled debut which, harnessing blackened stormwinds, is more terrestrial but no less catastrophic. Although unrelated, ARISTARCHOS’ sound is directly in line with that perfected by Naas Alcemeth’s projects, specifically NIGHTBRINGER, with a similar layering of falsetto guitar lead, although somewhat less massive and overwhelming in general. Nonetheless, I fucking LOVE the sound and I knew that this album was placing somewhere on my year-end list on the first listen.
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Kudos to NULL (US, Virginia). I’m actually a little surprised I like Hiraeth so much, considering its immense diversity. It has a black pagan/folk scaffold but that structure is filled in with damn near everything: neofolk, thrash, epic melodeath, rock, spaghetti western, pop punk, humppa, American folk… the list just goes on and on, and every time I listen to it, it seems like I find something else. The double-CD album allows for a ton of FFOs (including FALKENBACH, FINNTROLL, SAOR, WINTERSUN, ELUVEITIE, UNREQVITED, CATAMENIA… shit, even old OFFSPRING!) with 18 tracks and a runtime of about 110 minutes, it’s honestly good fortune that the entire thing is as great as it is.
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Since I already have so many FFOs flying around here, I might as well get into another fairly obvious parsing together of amazing elements from black metal history and talk about the STORMKEEP (US, Colorado) album Tales of Othertime. Between 90’s era EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, BURZUM, SATYRICON, and WINDIR, there isn’t really much that hasn’t already been done here, but goddamn they put it together SO fucking well and have such masterful songwriting, that this debut LP was born an instant classic.
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TIER THREE
[twelve creations of black art]
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Near the top of the ‘orthodox’ list is a close-to-my-heart Order ov the Black Arts-born debut which features elements of both cosmic and industrial black metal, but still manages to emit a distinctly demonic air: PALUS SOMNI’s (US/England) Monarch of Dark Matter. Comprised of members of ANCIENT HOSTILITY / ALUDRA, DECOHERENCE, and AKHLYS, it is a debut which is industrialized but raw, vast but dense, measured but chaotic, and progressively driving with increased conviction towards inevitable galactic annihilation. I had the honor of facilitating a bit of networking for the creation of this project, and also the honor of contributing the sigil logo.
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Also hellish but in an entirely different way, MORGAL (Finland) came out of nowhere, amirite?! Nightmare Lord is blazing, beer-drinking black metal combined with a nostalgic NWOBHM classicism… it’s like if you took the ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ (Iron Maiden) cover by CRADLE OF FILTH, cranked up the ferocity factor a bit, gave it a bunch of cocaine, and then made an entire album out of it. There’s also a sort of more belligerent thrash or almost punky aspect to it, and some parts remind me of TSJUDER or RAVENCULT.
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THERMOHALINE’s (Brazil/Portugal, Belgium, Argentina) mind-blowing avant-garde, ocean-themed album Maelström was the first album that I reviewed this year and it set the bar high. It has a massive, multilayered array of complexity and depth as well as almost baffling progression, disparate approaches, and seamless melding of many different styles and details, including industrial elements. This is avant-garde extreme metal at its best, and it could certainly claim black metal as a central core, but what is being presented with Maelström (apt title) goes way beyond that.
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Moving from outer realms towards inner depths, we have the particularly hellish and subterranean Paradeigma: Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity from the ever-evolving INFERNO (Czechia). Notable with this latest and highly anticipated album is the truly cavernous and oppressive direction, not least of which is exemplified by the buried vocals and hallucinatory, esoteric crush of doom-laden black delirium.
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Then, on to AULD RIDGE (France) and his latest offering of venomous Consanguineous Tales of Bloodshed and Treachery, featuring fantastic fiery riffing, galloping percussion, spiteful vocals, excellent use of menacing, epic synth, folky acoustics, and even some twang once in a while. Think the riff / vocal savagery of GORGOROTH’s Under the Sign of Hell, combined with the bombastic synth grandiosity of LIMBONIC ART’s The Ultimate Death Worship… with some pagan influences thrown in. Somewhat arbitrary to include this album (released in May) or December’s Consanguineous Tales of Faith and Famine.
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MALIGNAMENT’s (Finland) debut album Hypocrisis Absolution, was released in September, but is officially the last album I found which made the list, not discovered until the first week of January, 2022 and sneaking into placement on the last edit. I wish I had found it sooner! It forgoes the typical Finnish top-of-the-mix vocal abrasion for some more subdued and slightly deathened style which includes what comes close to chanting yells at times. Somewhat like PANZERFAUST. Musically it has a similar groove at times but with fiery riffing appropriate for the country, and Viking elements thrown in. Thanks to Hells Headbangers for advertising this one for purchase… don’t mind if I do!
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FRIISK’s (Germany) new album …un torügg bleev blot Sand seems to skate that line between being orthodox but also melodic and atmospheric. What it really reminds me of is the defunct ANTLERS (also from Germany), to the point that I thought it was a continuation of that project, expertly incorporating grandiose melancholy, somewhat subdued vocals, highlighted epic lead guitar, pensive plodding intermixed with driving aggression, and even the use of somewhat martial percussion (ie. compare ‘Mauern aus Nebel’ with ANTLERS’ ‘Hundreds’). Even the logos are similar. At any rate, fantastic stuff.
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One-man monster KRVNA (Australia), gave us a blasting, stylized, subtly symphonic and precise black metal assault which boasts amazing drums and lead guitar. Dubbed ‘vampyric’ by its creator, Sempinfernus seems to be such in concept alone, and really seems to have sonic roots in 3rd/4th wave clean aggression, sitting somewhere in between turn-of-the-millennium DIMMU BORGIR, DARK FUNERAL, and BEHEMOTH, but the best of all three.
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Another marine-based album which came to the surface only in the last few weeks of 2021 was LHAÄD’s (Belgium) release. Inspired by the depths of the sea, Below ended up being much heavier than I initially assumed it would be, almost death-metalish in some parts, crushing in its fluidity. This surprise (along with the more deathy PANOPTICON), really helped to fill a void for me this year, since there ended up being relatively very little death metal which really caught my ear.
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CRYPTOSPITAL (Belarus)! Damn… Scythe of the Black Death caught me off guard. Fast-paced, unpolished, aggressive, melodic atmospheric black metal with cool as fuck vocals. Takes a minute to get going, but once that first track hits around 2 minutes and 15 seconds, it hits pretty damn hard. Then holy FUCK! Listen to that part at 6:25 and then even more so at like 6:50, THEN AT 7:10 !!!! This is classic melodic black metal PERFECTION, no joke! And that’s just the first track!
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Man, the new OSSAERT (Netherlands) also kicks ass. Though not described as such, it almost makes sense to think ofPelgrimsoord as a sequel to the debut album Bedenhuis (2020), a surprisingly coherent mix of raw / melodic / progressive / punkened black metal, and exceptional songwriting. Track two, ‘De Val en de Beroering’ is particularly fantastic and contains one of the best progressions of the year, with a ludicrously badass driving progression, intoxicating lead riff, and a repeatedly thrashing, convulsing bassline that I can’t even really begin to describe.
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AVDAGADA (Sweden) – Damnatio Cursus [ep] is well-produced, aggressive riff-based deathened black metal with nuanced synth and fantastic vocals. FFO GLORIA MORTI, KRYPTAN (see below). Not to get off topic, but GLORIA MORTI happens to be probably my all-time favorite band from Finland, so a comparison is definitely saying something.
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TIER FOUR
[twenty creations of black art]
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THE WOLF GARDEN (England) was a close-to-the-last minute addition that had initially escaped me in the oversaturation of the final months of 2021. It was my brother-in-arms Naph (co-conspirator in our conversational FERVUS CONJUNCTUM reviews at Black Metal Daily) who pointed out the verifiable virtues of Woven of Serpent’s Spines. Almost equal parts nature-inspired emotive atmosphere and driving, elevating post-black melody, I couldn’t help but notice a similarity between it and the also excellent WINDFAERER release (sans violin). An excellent album.
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For FELLED (US, Oregon) the expected Pacific Northwest, Cascadian folk tag is right on target with fantastic melodic passages, soaring guitars, tumbling drums, and an organic mix. The Intimate Earth also wields imperfection well and embraces a certain looseness, a natural imprecision and unpolished quality which produces an unparalleled sense of grounded earnestness and honesty.
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KRYPTAN (Sweden) – Kryptan [ep] Is classic ‘third wave’ melodic Swedish badassery with a dash of synth and a good dose of excellent vocals. Another band (read: NORDJEVEL, HORDE OV HEL, AVSLUT) which is doing DARK FUNERAL way better than they are doing it themselves. Also FFO: NAGLFAR, TRIUMPHATOR.
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The release which is more black metal than black metal, from a band which takes orthodoxy quite literally and manages to be often exponentially more demonic sounding than 99% of the scene at any given point of time… despite being devout Roman Catholic: REVERORUM IB MALACHT (Sweden). Though two albums were released at the end of summer simultaneously, it is the more aggressive and grinding Not Here which really caught my attention with its continual percussive battery, massively down tuned bass, terrifying and sublime vocals, and insidious industrial grind. I’ve said it before and it is still relevant: With this project, for me the end result is not *enjoyment* but *awe* instead.
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SUMERIAN TOMBS (Germany) – As Sumer Thrones At Night [ep]. Far from the romantic or historical vampiric sound of current BM trends, what we have here is a connection to a bloodthirsty source which is more ancient, primitive, pervasive, and infernal… and this is reflected in a more orthodox and demonic sound.
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RÜBEZHAL’s (US, Alaska) Remnants of Grief & Glory consists of exalted, triumphant black metal melodies gust over layers of deathened, burly vocals, and a harnessing percussion and overall songwriting. Expect fiery riffing, brief but effective guitar hooks and well-placed cascades of irresistible, driving blasting, and tempered sections which build and overflow into more commanding, groovy progressions. Each song provides its own take on this fantastic resonance of exaltation and brutality, utilizing a classic, melodic black metal approach with a weighty application of death metal and even doom elements.
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CARATHIS (Austria) – Hymns to the Tower [ep] is blasting, raw(ish), thrashy, and has riffs that smolder in your brain after just a single listen… just straight up unadorned classic black metal! FFO TSJUDER, RAVENCULT, ASAGRAUM
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SALQIU (Brazil) – Urban Post Black [ep] is a short, avant-garde and somewhat industrial black art offering, fantastically resonant and disorienting EP, the sound of which may be translated into the experience of a perfect, brief soundtrack to urban angst.
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GRAVENCHALICE (US, Florida) dropped another one! I don’t like Samael quite as much as their previous, it’s a bit more methodical and doomy, but still awesome. A concise description would be elements of the dissonant occult gravity and dynamic atonality of DEATHSPELL OMEGA, perfectly conjoined with the sublimely melodic, intractable momentum of MGLA, but better the most recent offerings from both. Finally, a few that are a bit more ‘old school’.
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NOLTEM (US, Connecticut) I perceive as having a heavily water-based sound overall, and Illusions In The Wake is like a lucid, surreal dreamstate, with meandering acoustic recurrence over nonchalant percussion which seems to unfurl in jazzy eddies, delirious distorted strings, and harsh vocals, often with a faint rush of turmoil, building inertia, and apexes which overflow into an expansive, beautiful cascade. It also boasts one of the most unabashedly colorful album covers in recent memory.
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An act that I did not realize was so melodic until I finally caught up with it was this year’s Dy’th Requiem For The Serpent Telepath was ESOCTRILIHUM (France). Mislead by perhaps a faulty perspective on previous releases, I expect oppressive, harsh, dense heaviness, not the pervasive melodic aspect which is present here. I’m talking real melody, classic black metal melody. Not just thrown in amidst a bunch of oppressive dissonant blasting, but instead a melody with emphasis and space created for it which brings to mind shit like old DIMMU BORGIR (think ‘Mourning Palace’), CALADAN BROOD, LIMBONIC ART, and FALKENBACH.
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DARK WATCHER (US, Arkansas) – Hymns Of A Godless Land [ep] is high energy, horns-in-the-air, spaghetti-western-flavored americana black metal, short and sweet. FFO recent MAQUAHUITL, VOLAHN, and VITAL SPIRIT.
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MORKE’s (US, Minnesota) We Are The River is a must-mention; a very personal, genuine, melancholic, introspective, powerful, beautiful 80-minute release, poignant both from a conceptual and auditory perspective. Truly an ambitious project, which clearly demonstrates that the project needs a good label contract.
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AGRYPNIE (Germany) graced us with Metamorphosis, boasting a fairly heavy symphonic element, and affixing it into an overall style which is altogether more modern and progressive, resulting in some massive, crystalline, and powerful material. Think HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY but more epic arrangements and less irritating vocals, and also FFO BELTEZ, GAEREA, and VUKARI.
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With this year’s Arkivet, WORMWOOD (Sweden) went in the direction that I hoped they would. Each song is more in line with what I particularly appreciate from previous works (specifically the PINK FLOYD-esque guitar lead), and each one has nuances that continue to reveal themselves after a few listens. I venture to say that even though Nattarvet’s finish sets the bar for peak WORMWOOD, overall Arkivet is the better album.
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This would normally be the place I would place the ever-productive UNREQVITED, probably my favorite black ‘post / gaze’ project and a frequent entry on my AOTY lists. However, although it is good (and I still bought it) the ultralite Beautiful Ghosts album didn’t resonate with me as much as the quite similar but darker and more sinister HÆNESY (Hungary). Featuring lush atmospheric delirium, buried and indistinguishable vocals, and excellent black metal drive at times (‘Drowning In The Final Intellect’), Garabontzia certainly put this project on the map for me.
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GRANDEUR (Austria) – Aurea Aetas is unfancy, violent, but melodic black metal with some fiery lead on top and blasting galore, hitting that prototypical black metal sweet spot and hitting it hard with the backing force of some driving crust/punk inertia!
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VUKARI (US, Illinois) – Omnes Nihil [ep] is progressive black metal done perfectly: great focus, great balance, great drive, great production, this time a bit heavier than their last album. This band just gets better and better with every new release. FFO BELTEZ, GAEREA
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KAMPFESWUT (Germany) – Kampfeswut [ep] is stripped down, squealing, punky black metal with an AGALLOCH-ish folky acoustic element.
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DUSK IN SILENCE (Indonesia) also hit a sweet spot with me for reasons which are a little hard to put a finger on other than the fact that Beneath the Great Sky of Solitude’s memorable riffs and outstanding progressions just immediately wormed their way to my mind loop to the point that I grabbed that LP one Bandcamp Friday.
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HONORABLE MENTION
[not black art]
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To round out 2021 with a solid top 50, I’ve got FALLENSUN (Canada) – The Wake of the Fall. Epic progressive melodic death metal at it’s finest. I have a MAJOR weakness for this sort of stuff and my all-time favorite album (ever) would fall into this description (DISILLUSION – The Liberation). FALLENSON do it near perfectly, a gorgeous melding of deeply moving euphonies and deathened extremity, this debut album elevating them to the heights of fellow aeronauts AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION, NE OBLIVISCARIS, ETERNAL STORM, COUNTLESS SKIES, IOTUNN, IAPETUS, and DESSIDERIUM (who’s 2021 album Aria has at least some potential beat out The Wake of the Fall once I give it a fair shake).
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Greetings and infernal salutations warbrothers and assorted kvltlords. Dex again, this time sharing the list of my favourite EPs and demos (worth more than your life. Is that joke old yet?) from the past twelve months.
Somewhere in the vicinity of three and a half thousand black metal demos/EPs alone were released last year. Of course I didn’t check them ALL out – I do possess at least some vestiges of a life – but this list represents the cream of the crop of what I did spend time with and kept returning to over and over again. Yes, there are an excessive amount of Near Misses. But even they were culled from a towering stack of hundreds more and all of them are worth your time (hell, even I’m surprised some of them didn’t make the cut for the main list). So without further ado… my 30 favourite EPs and demos of 2021. Apologies in advance, I’ll be back before you know it with my full-lengthalbumslist. Hails.
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Near Misses:
Gaahls Wyrd – The Humming Mountain
Cathedrals In The Night – Demo I
Selvans – Dark Italian Art
Grinning Death’s Head – Cataclysm
Katabasilisk – Sunset Of Solemn Silhouettes
Sapientia Diaboli – Black Is the Messenger. Black Is the Destiny.
Stikkersvin – Kælderens Barn
Vaal – Het Vagevuur
Lamp Of Murmuur – Punishment and Devotion
Shades of Vrsaj’kett – What Lies Beneath Gravel & Soot
Irae – Dangerovz Magick Zpells from the Mesziah of Death
Sojourner – Perennial
Mooncitadel – Onyx Castles and Silver Keys
Merzuul – Gallipoli
Förgjord – Ruumissaarna Pt. 2
A Mournful Path – Upon Mounds Of Flesh And Ash
Ifrinn – Caledonian Black Magic
Kudlaakh – Beyond A World Of Illusion
Ŭkcheănsălâwit – Alaskan Escape
Kampfeswut – Kampfeswut
Tumultuous Ruin – Demo I
Sentiero dei Principi – Romantic Black Metal Manifesto
Sightblinder – Relinquishing Light
VzörbrëzV – Ébloui De Ténèbres
Wampyric Rites – The Eternal Melancholy Of The Wampyre / Demo III
Sounds like: “A burning fire both immediate and resonating from times of old. A feeling of being totally lost, yet coming home. Destruction and rebirth. Writhing in eternal torment and bursting with limitless power. A burning, overpowering and obliterating rage… and soaring triumph.” Well, that’s what we said when we premiered a track from this one-two punch from the kings of the Greek underground. It still sounds like that to me now.
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29. Dwarrowdelf – Cold Lie The Ashes (Independent) UK
Sounds like: Nepotism. Nah, I genuinely love what our man Tom does, and here he pushes the Delf sound further than ever. He also completely owns that B-side cover – if you didn’t know, you’d swear it was a Dwarrowdelf track. Really looking forward to the new album he may or may not be recording (and I’m not being obtuse – I really have no idea what he’s doing).
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28. Kerasfóra – Denn Die Todten Reiten Schnell (Templo del Sol Muerto) Chile
Sounds like: Evil red eyes looking at you from the darkness behind that gate on the cover. This sinister blend of DS infused, hypnotically paced, medieval raw black is captivating – the kind of thing everyone should be paying attention to but barely anyone does.
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27. Xirgan – Prolonging The Archaic Slumber (Independent) USA
Sounds like: What you love to stumble across when you’ve been scouring the backwoods of the internet for great new shit but only discovering steaming hot garbage. At least, that was my situation when I discovered Xirgan anyway, and it’s stuck with me ever since. A great collaboration between several raw USBM names that does everything absolutely correct for me, this was released on cassette alongside the also quite nice first demo The Alchemist’s Curse so I could have cheated and thrown them both on here. Start with this one anyway. Side note: it also has a Harry Potter logo on the artwork… do with that information what you will.
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26. Tharagavverug – Vile and Loathsome Discord / Thin Is the Veil Betwixt Man and the Godless Deep (Rat Covenant) Romania
Okay fuck it, I AM going to cheat here, because this tape released by Rat Covenant combines both demos from this Romanian newcomer. Tharagavverugcould sound like just another one of the million projects that do this sort of thing and I might have skipped over – if it wasn’t for the way it incorporates ’80s horror movie soundtrack vibes on occasion, and also just plain rips.
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25. Trhä – Inagape (Independent) Unknown
Sounds like: Trhä‘s stunning earlier 2021 demo Ihum Jolhduc parking its ass on my list for basically the entire year… until Inagape dropped right at the death, somehow managing to top even that and leaving my jaw in a gape. I’m not sorry for that joke. Get fucked.
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24. Nächtlich – Bewitched Under Hollow Nightskies (Vinland Corpse) Canada
Sounds like: Well. If you’re not attuned to the wretched delights of these Canadians after how many times I’ve shitted on about them and how often they’ve made my Listcrush in previous years, just listen to this tape and be forever converted. One of the rawest and also best things they’ve done lately, which is saying more than you could imagine.
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23. Hope Drone – Husk (Independent) Australia
Sounds like: An already excellent post-black band experimenting with what they do and coming up with something alternately shattering and breathtaking. I’m sure I said this last time, but come and tour down Melbourne way again soon, lads. Husk is the most accomplished and evolved record you’ve ever done and I need to see this stuff live.
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22. Krvna – Sempinfernus (Seance Records) Australia
Sounds like: “…lush, sanguine grandeur that pays respect to the ancients like Emperor but forges a path all its own. Showcasing top-notch writing and attention to detail, the melodies are sublime, every note dripping in midnight majesty and malice … a perfect paean to the eternal torment and savage will of the immortal beasts of the millennia.” Taken from our interview with main man Krvna Vatra Smrt, that description sums up this utterly sumptuous smorgasbord of vampyric black metal delights quite well. Superlative stuff, salivating for the upcoming debut album.
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21. Carathis – The Amethyst Fortress (Labyrinth Tower) Austria
Sounds like: That glorious album cover given sonic form, with a twist that only preternaturally gifted composer Erech Leleth could provide. He appears in this list twice and genuinely writes some of the most thrilling shit around. Just hook it to my veins.
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20. Sørgelig – Slaves Of Tomorrow (Repose Records) Greece
Sounds like: You know those guys who stand on street corners holding signs saying “the end is nigh” and proselytizing to anyone within earshot? This sounds like that. But the dude is also on fire. And trying to bash your head in with whatever he can get his hands on. Even when they get punkier than usual, Sørgelig remain underrated as fuck and completely incredible.
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19. Jernved – Stormvarsel (Independent) Denmark
Sounds like: The ’90s never left and all those bands you discovered and tapes you traded back then are magically new again. Absolutely top notch stuff; the type of quintessential black metal you can put on at any time and it always hits the spot.
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18. Black Kruud – The Staircase of Interdimensionality (Moonworshipper Records) Canada
Sounds like: fervent nocturnal worship from the otherrealms, by way of throwing a drum kit down twelve flights of stairs. Kidding – but I do absolutely adore the clattering cacophony this side project of Gamzhurm from Nächtlich creates. I could listen to it all day. You should too.
Sounds like: Wandering centuries-old crumbling ruins and feeling the lingering vibrations of those ancient civilizations resonating deep within your soul. The type of raw black metal to leave an indelible mark, you’ll hear from this side project of Vritra from Brånd and Kringa again on my next list.
Sounds like: The ineffable Fog doing what he does best whilst bringing his superb Golden Horde saga to a close. Or, “wielding his mastery of classic black metal and bending it to his will to crush the listener underneath and leave us breathless”, as we said in our glowing review.
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15. Hekseblad – The Fall Of Cintra (Fólkvangr Records) USA
Sounds like: The rich and immersive world of The Witcher perfectly translated into black metal form. I rated this 4.5 / 5 when it dropped and it more-or-less managed to hold that score down since. Killer shit. They also just released a follow-up EP that expands on their sound; be sure to bust a nice big suss all over that as well.
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14. Apparition Of Sunlight – Wilt of Rose’s Crimson (Demo MMXXI) (Tour De Garde) USA/Canada
Sounds like: FUN. Which is weird for a demo with such melancholic tendencies, but I’ll state right here and now that it is categorically impossible to listen to this new raw melodic project from members of Fin (RIP), Délétère and Aleynmord and not thoroughly enjoy oneself. Can’t wait for more.
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13. Spiral Staircase – Cellar Dream (Lampshade Tapes) USA
There isn’t a single release since 2017 that Justin (aka Dread of Drekavac, Triangulum and more) hasn’t put out in his latest creative incarnation as Spiral Staircase that I don’t adore, and Cellar Dream keeps that streak going strong. At ten minutes long, the insistent rotting melodies within sounds like the kind of thing I’d leave on repeat for hours on end. Because I did, many times. Absolutely vital raw black metal.
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12. Леший – Поганые сны (Horrible Room) Russia
Sounds like: filthy, filthy dreams. That’s what the cyrillic title of this fucking stupendous demo by Russians Leshiy translates to anyway; one listen to its gnarled and ravenous spiritual rawness and you’ll certainly decide these are the type of dreams you love to have. And I don’t mean it’ll make your night shorts all sticky. Although it probably will.
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11. Somme – Prussian Blood (Death Kvlt Productions, Death Prayer Records) Finland
Sounds like: Being dropped smack-bang into the middle of WWI alongside members of Fallen Forest / Coniferous Myst, who then proceed to provide the perfect soundtrack for the misery, death and agonizingly hard-fought triumphs around you. Pretty much the same as their first EP, only even better.
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10. Etxegiña – Herederos del silencio (AbArt Corruption, Vertebrae) Spain/France
Sounds like: One of the most honest and powerful EPs to see the light of day in 2021, and a remarkably versatile one too. These four tracks each have their own singular mission yet fit together like a hand in a glove; plus, no matter what they do, they’ll stir your blood and get you up out of your seat. Check our previous interviews with main man Waldo for the incredibly affecting story and context behind it all.
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9. Ancient Mastery – The Chosen One (Death Prayer Records, Northern Silence Productions) Austria
Sounds like: Magnificent, hammering epic black metal with more ideas crammed into three tracks than that entire stylistic sub-genre can usually come up with in several years (and our Tom seems to come up with half of those anyway). Erech Leleth‘s other entry on this list. The man is truly unstoppable and this EP is dazzling.
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8. Crucifixion Bell – Astral Famine Chambers (Nithstang, Forgotten Sorcery Productions) USA
Sounds like: Being buried six feet deep in a coffin filled with tiny bloodsucking bats / swirling psychic vampire spirits and frantically trying to dig your way out whilst being fed upon before you’re sucked dry. The black metal tracks on this EP are two of the finest and most creative to appear all year, prolific sole practitioner The Astral Serpent (check out Fåvnesbane and all his other projects if you haven’t) just does not fucking miss.
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7. Krigstjørn – Liv, Død og Mellemvejen (Tour De Garde) Denmark
I can’t remember who shared this when I first saw it, but I owe them a debt – I wasn’t aware of this fresh Korpsånd Circle entity at the time and it ended up being one of my most played demos for the rest of the year. They also dropped another great demo (Skikkelser) later on in November which for whatever reason I haven’t been able to spend that much time with yet, so you should probably check that one out as well.
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6. Ärid – XIII – The Putrefying Rest (Death Hymns) USA
Sounds like: Being dead but your consciousness remains trapped in an eternal nightmare, bound to your decaying body so you’re forced to slowly experience yourself decomposing over endless time. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky in recent years but I haven’t come across much of this sort of thing lately (“thank fuck” I hear most of you say) but the weird magic created by thin, hornet’s nest guitars, absolutely disgusting vocals and tin-can yet creative drumming still hits the spot just as well as it did when I used to hear it done on the regular, and thankfully I still have Ärid to deliver it to me. Everything this project does is fucking great.
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5. Tirgûl – The Victorious Star (Independent) Netherlands
I actually discovered this super late in the year via one of Neill Jameson‘s lists for No Clean Singing (which are also fantastic, check them out if you haven’t) but I’ve listened to it daily since and can’t believe how good it is. I was intrigued when he described it as sounding like something that would have been on Hot Records back in the day; for those of you who don’t know what that means I guess just think of this EP as a spiritual sequel to the original recording of Stormblåst and you’re in the ballpark.
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4. Μνήμα – Spectres Of Oblivion / Gathering Sorcery to the Eternal Portals of the Past PT II / Flesh Prison (Escafismo, Phantom Lure, Crown and Throne Ltd, Hexenkult, AbArt Corruption) Greece
Sounds like: The most messed up, harrowing shit you’ve ever heard in your life. Yeah I’m cheating throwing every EP/demo the mysterious Greek tomb-dweller released this year on here, but no two releases are alike and all of them should be on this list, so deal with it. And listen to them all. Now. The forthcoming full-length Disciples Of Excremental Liturgies will blow your fucking mind, by the way.
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3. Bat Magic – Feast Of Blood (Sore Ear Collective) Unknown
Sounds like: SCREAMING, FLAPPING, FEASTING BLACK SORCERY. The first track I heard from this mysterious new Ordo Vampyr Orientis coven shot through me like a bolt of electricity; the rest of it surpassed all my expectations a zillion times over. Even in the more sedate, mystical, or just plain fun as hell moments it feels like everything about it is redlining to 11 (not least of all the vocals), and it contains probably one of the best riffs of the year to boot (I’ll let you figure out which one) as well as the best conclusion of just about any release anyone put out. The hardest hitting demo / EP to slap me in the face this cycle, by far… I need more. MORE. MORE!!! HAIL THE BAT!!!
“Just remember… you’ll dig two graves instead of one.”
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2. Immortal Forest – Howls From The Primordial Ones (Elderblood Productions) Unknown
You know when you find something that does absolutely nothing new at all, yet seems to do it perfectly? Elderblood Productions‘ 20th release Immortal Forest – Howls From The Primordial Ones is exactly that. As we said in our review: “Attitude, sound and aesthetic all align in a perfect storm encapsulating the quintessence of underground black metal. Even within the boundaries of their sound all elements are near flawlessly balanced. The visceral rawness, vocals like wind roaring bitter and cold through the trees, the melodies ablaze with zealous sorceries atop brittle percussion – despite the razor-sharp abrasion and searing obfuscation of the production these four compositions radiate an ancient and fervorous majesty, largely due to the fact that no amount of distortion can hide the beautiful melodies at play. Each track is a stunning expression of darkness and creates the type of swirling, heady delirium that regular patrons of the label and raw black cult acolytes will no doubt drink up like spilled claret from a jugular vein.”
The title track from this might just be my favourite demo song of the year, but the entire thing is impeccable. If the description above sounds at all within your wheelhouse I highly suggest you immerse yourself in it post-haste. Thou shalt be consumed.
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1. Kêres – Flaming Ash (Terratur Possessions) Finland
It takes no more than sixty seconds once you’ve pressed play on Flaming Ash, the latest EP from Circle Of Ouroboros composer Atvar‘s long running project Kêres, to realise the sheer quality that lies within this release. One minute maximum is all you need to feel that riff sink in; one minute until the vocals begin so soothe your soul. A few people said the last album Ice, Vapour, and Crooked Arrows had somehow lost a little of the Kêres magic – if you were one of those people, put those thoughts right out of your mind because from beginning to end Atvar is firmly back on top of his songwriting game (as if he ever wasn’t, really) and the flow from early Katatonia-esque melancholia to turbulent black storms and back again is nothing short of exquisite.
In this piece I’ve mentioned the best demo riff of the year, demo song of the year. Flaming Ash is without a shadow of doubt the best overall EP of the year. Get yourself a copy now. Hails.
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Listcrush returns with the Tom O’Dell Edition, Gos Edition and Dex full-length album Edition soon.
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Vampirism has long been a staple of superstition around the world. You can find vampire legends in almost any culture – the Greek have Vyrkolakas. Shtriga terrorized Albania. Australian aboriginals have the Yara-ma-yha-who, a creature who dropped from trees to exsanguinate people (via suckers on their feet, no less) before eating them and regurgitating their bodies so they could become Yara-ma-yha-who themselves. The English have perhaps the most enduring modern vampire image, thanks largely to Polidori‘s The Vampyre and Stoker‘s omnipotent and omnipresent Dracula… but one of the most potent mythologies belong to the Strigoi of Romania, which is also the location of the first real person being historically recorded as having transformed into a “vampire”.
This being where Krvna Vatra Smrt, the enigmatic sole spirit behind fresh Australian vampyric black metal band KRVNA, comes in – whilst he currently resides in Australia his family are Romanians who’d moved from Transylvania some 600 years ago to the Istrian peninsula, and his project is thematically inspired by the folk stories and legends passed down through his family and countless generations. This obviously provides him with a deeper connection to these mythological tales than most who bash out raw vampyric black metal demos in their basements after watching a few B-movies or reading an Anne Rice novel; a fact which shines like blazing moonlight throughout the diabolical onslaught of his debut album Sempinfernus.
Yes, Krvna‘s excellent demo Long Forgotten Relic (released earlier this year) was but a tantalizing taste of the power this project holds – Sempinfernus sees the sound of Krvna fully blossomed in lush, sanguine grandeur that pays respect to the ancients like Emperor but forges a path all its own. Showcasing top-notch writing and attention to detail, the melodies are sublime, every note dripping in midnight majesty and malice. The percussion is relentless and unstoppable, skittering like flittermice one moment and shattering the very earth the next. An instrumental break in the centre of the record cleaves it in twain, separating the opening two-part suite of ‘From The Shades Of Hades…’ and ‘…To The Targovistean Night’ from the shattering closing dyad of ‘Timeless… Ageless…’ and ‘The Eve Of Eternal Sunset’. Both halves are nought but perfect paeans to the eternal torment and savage will of the immortal beasts of the millennia.
Such an emphatic and unforgettable debut album deserves more than a mere review, so we reached out to the crypt of Krvna with trepidation to find out more… turns out, he’s a sparkling conversationalist and was more than happy to lift the coffin lid ever-so-slightly so we could catch a fleeting glimpse of the methods and motivations behind one of the finest vampyric black metal albums unleashed of late. Thus; read on and listen to the full-stream below, then grab yourself a copy from the mighty Seance Records while you can. The Strigoi are arisen once more.
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Greetings, Krvna Vatra Smrt. It is a true pleasure to be speaking with you today. Your debut album Sempinfernus has just been unleashed, and the title is intriguing – it seems to be a rather telling play on words. What does this title mean?
KVS: Likewise, thank you for taking the time to organise the interview & subsequent questions! It’s a privilege and an honour! ‘Sempinfernus‘ was absolutely concocted via ‘word play’. I was initially considering the eternal aspect of the vampire – and was musing over the latin phrase ‘sempiternal’. But as one does, I’d found the mind wander into darker corners and I’d thought the substitution of the suffix -iternal with ‘-infernus’ would be more hard hitting. A notion of ever lasting hell! Recently however I’d managed to find references to this exact word in some obscure medieval latin texts, so… go figure… someone else beat me to it. It’s nice to have the phrase validated/legitimised, in the very least.
Dealing thematically with the topic of vampirism, you have noted that Sempinfernus is inspired by the folk stories and legends passed down through your Romanian family and countless generations. However, you have placed your own spin on it – you aim to utilise the modern trappings which have helped dispel belief in the old myths to drag those beliefs to the fore once again. Could you tell us a little about this and why it was something you wanted to do?
KVS: I could more than likely put this down to a nostalgic indulgence – living on the other side of the planet, having grown up in the west and having that slight disconnect with my family’s heritage, customs and norms; it tends to leave you with a thirst for a greater knowledge and understanding of the ‘old ways’. This, of course, includes its superstitions – the part of many Eastern European cultures which are typically & unfortunately swept under the rug almost in embarrassment; but these superstitions in themselves are a treasure trove of lore & (seemingly?) redundant pantheon, all of which happen to be of great interest to me.
My mother’s heritage – (her people are called ‘istro-romanians’ by scholars, and loosely ‘vlach’ or ‘rumeni’ by commoners) is an endangered culture and its language is listed by UNESCO as one of Europe’s most endangered languages. Throughout the centuries my ancestors had managed to keep their language, culture, traditions and superstitions intact – only up until very recently. I think it comes down to what is considered economically useful or valuable – what value does speaking an archaic form of Romanian that is most related to dialects found in modern day Transylvania pose for a modern day speaker, be they from Istria, or those who belong to the world’s countless diaspora? Unfortunately, the answer may be ‘not much’. So the language, the customs and beliefs are almost systematically cast aside. Personally I think this is a sad eventuality & I’m happy to hear of concerted efforts to keep the culture and language ‘alive’.
In part, this subtext served as inspiration for my focus/subject matter for Sempinfernus. The setting of the mythological vampire is not just of consequence or happenstance, either – my own mother has stories about being set upon by ‘Morana’ (which in Slavic Cultures is the Goddess of Winter & Death – I’m sure this is no coincidence, either) as a child who would visit her at night and drain her of her blood… of her ‘essence’.
So you invariably hear about all of these stories, of vampirism, of witchcraft, and can’t help but compare it to the banality of modern day, western comfortability. Everything can seem so bland in comparison… but would we want it any other way?
Your mother! Incredible. Vampirism is a topic that has always been endlessly fascinating to me – some may not know that the origins of the vampire myth had root in the strigoi of Romania, and the very first vampire may have been a man from the region of Istria. What is your opinion of the tales and legends of old? Do you believe there may have been any element of truth to them?
KVS: Likewise – the vampire in particular was always of great interest to me. I’m impressed that you’re aware of the case of ‘Jure Grando’ – apparently one of the very first documented cases of vampirism in all of Europe. Kringa – Grando’s home village, is some 15-20 minutes away from where my mother was born & lived. I’m sure the people genuinely believed in such cases, historically & I’m sure there are still some people, deep within the forests and small villages throughout the Balkanswho still may believe in vampirism… and in the practice of witchcraft (or in modern terms, ‘Enthnobotanic’ healing). Again, however – I doubt this is commonplace, and yes – things like improvements in education, technology, living and health standards play a part in the greater diminishment of said lore.
Is your mother’s culture something that you have been particularly close to throughout your life?
KVS: Sadly, no. And I suppose my generation is part of the greater problem. We’d never bothered to pick up the language (my mother still speaks it from time to time with her sisters) – but we have no real understanding of what’s being said. I’m sure it’s all conjurations, spells & curses, right? Hah!
There’s a collective guilt I think my sister and I, and our cousins feel. We’re aware of the fact that we belong to an endangered culture, albeit via proxy, but haven’t done a great deal to help sustain it. Perhaps history will judge us accordingly. Or perhaps, not.
Perhaps the urge will take one day – it’s never too late. Have you had the opportunity to travel back through the lands of your heritage and explore these regions that birthed vampires?
KVS: I’ve travelled throughout many parts of the Balkans, but this was months before civil war broke out in the early 90’s – I was quite young at the time. A few years back I’d forced my parents to visit Kringa and take photos. They did so, reluctantly.
It would be great to visit, I hope you get to return (and that I myself travel there as well!). Moving to the technical side of things – you’re clearly an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, which definitely shines through on the recording. One of the most immediately striking elements of the album is the drumming – performed with great skill by yourself, automatically placing Krvna at a level above many other one-man projects where the programmed drums are often slapped on as an afterthought. Given their importance to these well-crafted arrangements, I’m curious: how did you approach composing these songs?
KVS: The songs took years to write & I’d ended up with a massive library of riffs. I never force ideas – I just wait for them to appear out of the ‘ether’. 2020 was a difficult year for most people, but it seemed to hit my family quite hard. My father passed away of cancer during our first lockdown here in Sydney and at around the same time I’d managed to break my shoulder – 3 fractures, two torn ligaments and a torn bicep. Sempinfernus was my way of regaining control physically & mentally – and my ‘fuck you’ back at the universe. There were points last year where I wasn’t sure If I was ever going to be able to play music again – but I managed to push myself and the end result was Sempinfernus. Every aspect was considered to a high degree – I wanted this to be the best possible album it could be. There is also a lot of engineering & editing involved in piecing an album like this together. Including my own releases I’ve had at least another dozen more work their way through my studio (Last Gasp Recordings) – some of which have recently been released, and others yet to see the light of day. Having recording, engineering skills, OCD and time are all great contributors & assets to the final product, of course.
I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Pushing yourself clearly worked – in my opinion, it is a fantastic album. There was a relatively short amount of time between the release of the demo Long Forgotten Relic and Sempinfernus. How did this happen? Was the recording of Sempinfernus completed at an earlier date, or do you just work at an astonishing speed?
KVS: Great question – in truth the writing and recording processes were not only intertwined but well and truly related to each other. The timing of the releases comes down more to scheduling from the label’s end vs finishing times here at the studio. The demo was completed in February this year, and the album was finalised in late August/September.
Sempinfernus is not only more focused and aggressive than the demo, but far more expansive and dynamic as well – it really shows a much wider scope of what Krvna is capable of. Whilst you have obviously been inspired by the various ancient disciplines of traditional Scandinavian black metal, within the cauldron you have also stirred some distinctly more modern sounds and influences (the beginning of final track ‘The Eve Of Eternal Sunset’ is a good example of this). Is the sound of this album what you were aiming for when you first conceived the idea of Krvna, or has it evolved in its own way?
KVS: I’d made a concerted effort not to listen to much music during the recording/arrangement/editing/mixing & mastering phases of the album. Whilst Sempinfernus is a definite homage to 90’s black metal – I didn’t specifically set out to sound like any given band. The album was always going to end up this way – I am a product of my time and I think it really is true that ‘the young look forward, while the old look back’. I don’t know if i could ever write a modern sounding black metal album, as a whole. But sure, there may be some modern aspects that have worked their way into certain songs. I am OK with that.
Vampyric black metal seems as popular as ever, especially in rawer forms where new artists seem to pop up every week. What are your thoughts on this?
KVS: I think it’s fine – I definitely don’t hold monopoly on this idea and I have close friends who are much more deeply rooted in the sub-genre than I am. As long as the philosophy is sound then there is nothing necessarily to ‘poke holes’ at.
I must mention the cover art – it is spectacular, and reminds me of several other recent Seance Records releases with similarly excellent illustrated artwork stylings (Nazxul, Pestilential Shadows, Nocturnes Mist etc). Who is the artist? Did you work closely with them during the creation of the piece?
KVS: The artist is the one and only ‘Scourge’ – also known as ‘Balam’ from Pestilential Shadows/Varw/Rift/Nazxul fame. And yes – the artwork is truly amazing. It’s not surprising that aesthetically we hold common ground but even musically – many of the members of the bands you’ve mentioned are ‘from the same house’, so to speak.
Balam is a legend. Now, as Krvna is your personal solo project, one might imagine assembling a live lineup and playing shows is not high on your list of desires. Is that something you would ever entertain for Krvna? Do you find merit in black metal in a live setting?
KVS: I’ve been asked to play live a couple of times already, as it happens. Whilst I’ve discussed the idea of a lineup with friends – the rest lays strictly in the hypothetical realms. We’ve only just recently come out of another lockdown and I think trying to organise much of anything whilst living under these kinds of conditions & restrictions is nigh on impossible. In future however – sure, I can see KRVNA playing shows.
Oh! Superb, if it happens I’ll have to attend. So, what does lie in the future for Krvna? Is more material on the way?
KVS: Yes – a second album is almost complete. It is more aggressive than the first, but I’ve ensured a good balance between aggression/melody/atmosphere. Keep an eye out, providing no additional physical injuries or deaths in the family – Seance and I are hoping for a mid year release, next year.
You do work fast, looking forward to it. Before we part, as it’s almost the end of the year, I’ll ask you for some recommendations – which expressions of black art (sonic, visual or otherwise) have particularly enflamed and inspired your spirit this year?
KVS: Death has been the greatest motivator. When it transforms from an abstract/hypothetical to an abject experience… when you’re no longer just ‘pissing in the wind’ & when it hits you in the guts and leaves you with a burgeoning sense of existentialist dread…these long dark nights, that fill with more questions than answers… this is what inspires, unfortunately.
But – back to the material world; new & old releases from bands like Pestilential Shadows, Varw, Rift, Nazxul, Ravenous Dusk, Harvest, Drowning The Light, Orbyssmal, Ignis Gehenna, Graveir, Runespell, Temple Nightside & Order of Orias provide me with more than enough enrichment.
And finally, to leave on a philosophical or possibly supernatural note – what happens to us after we die? Might there be a way to exist forever?
KVS: The ‘old romantic’ in me might pine for some form of permanence, as dreadful that may be. The pessimist, however – expects a cold grave where consciousness dissolves & reverts back to true, dark, nothingness. I suppose I’ll just sit on the fence a little while & contemplate.
Sincerest thanks once again for your time, Krvna Vatra Smrt. Any final words or wisdom for us all?
KVS: Thank you for the interview BMD & thank you to everyone who happens to stumble across Sempinfernus – I hope you find some magic hiding amongst the ruins.
Sempinfernus is available now via Seance Records.
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Purchase Sempinfernus on digital or CD (cassette sold out) from the Seance Records Bandcamp HERE or on CD and cassette from the Seance Records webstore HERE.
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