If you were listening to black metal in the mid-90s to the early 2000s, you might be familiar with Germany’s Solistitium Records. They were pretty productive in that time, releasing records from bands like Isvind, Helheim, Darkwoods My Betrothed, Tsjuder, Horna, and even Behemoth’s earlier albums. They went on hiatus in 2006, but reactivated in 2025, and delved right back into the black metal releases and bands of their glory days.

One such band and release is Sweden’s Nazghor, a band comprised of various veterans from the Swedish metal scene, such as Entrails, Morphetik, Cryonic, Hyperion, and A World Ablaze is the band’s 8th album, since forming in 2013. Prolific is an understatement.

As you’d expect from this label and set of band members, this is Swedish black metal harkening back to that 90s/early 2000s era (Dissection, Watain, Dark Funeral, Marduk, Setherial, Lord Belial, etc) and it’s done really, really well. It’s frosty, yet melodic, has some light keyboards here and there (i.e., “The Infallible God”, “The Black Light of the Spectral Keeper”, “Bathe in Ashes”),  though certainly not full-on symphonic black metal, and is chock full of killer riffs, and has an organic, classic, but nice, razor-sharp production.

The whole album is full of classic Swedish melodic black metal moments from the blistering opener “Cursed and Unblessed”, to the fiercely melodic gallop of personal favorite “Day of Sepulcral”, the more moody and restrained “Within Crimson Kingdom”, and the stern march of “Bathe in Ashes”, and atmospheric, lengthy closer “A Once Starless Oath”.

Since reactivating Solistitium Records’ releases have been a bit hit and miss for me, but all certainly recalling thier early catalog, sticking with solid black metal with bands like Nøkk, Ulvehyrde, Aldheorte, and Nordlys, and even a Suffering Souls reissue, but so far this has been my favorite. But that is, until they drop the new Vallendusk album later this year.

[Visit the band's website]

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