2025 has seen some excellent symphonic black metal, especially later on in the year, with releases from Old Machines, Gjallahorn’s Wrath, Maahes, Carach Angren, Argesk, Mystic Circle, Rotting Demise, Labyrinthus Stellarum, Mourniaty, Achathras, Execrari, Deconstruction Sequence, Haimad, and Withering Soul. 

Add the third album from the Netherlands’ one-man (J.M.K.P) act, The Gloomy Radiance of the Sun. This Dutch act is new to me, but I’m intrigued by their more chaotic, yet still old school take on Symphonic Black metal that culls a little from Obtained Enslavement and early Emperor, but also from slightly more out there, chaotic, discordant bands in the genre like Ebonylake, Caedeous, or Order of Riven Cathedrals.

Now, admittedly, the album’s 35-ish minute run time is essentially the same feral, but spacy, cosmic pace and gait from start to finish, and the drums are programmed. But there is something about the keyboards that comes across like the titular character from The Phantom of the Opera playing two church organs at once while on bath salts that is clicking with me, even if they are also mostly the same gait and pace throughout.

From opener “Where Serpents Slither Through Endless Night” to closer “To Surrender to the Eternal”, the album just goes pretty full throttle. And while none of the tracks really jump out or change the momentum, and also many of the tracks end suddenly like J., M.K.P. couldn’t figure out where to take the song, it all sort of somehow hits too. Especially on headphones, where the synths sort of overwhelm you.

But still, I did enjoy late album tracks like “The Fallen Light”, “Ruins of a Thousand Sunless Aeons” (which adds some dramatic choirs), and “To Surrender to the Eternal”, as they do inject just a smidgeon of pacing amid the cacophony, that make this a rather unique entry into the years standout releases in the genre.

[Visit the band's website]

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