I quite enjoyed 2021’s Land of Darkness from this Greek (now relocated to Scotland) solo artist (‘Soulreaper’), but for some reason I missed 2024’s Echoes of Primordial Gnosis. So I thought I’d better get to this, his fifth album, before he drops another one.
Now, I did listen to Echoes of Primordial Gnosis to be able to compare Land of Darkness, Echoes, and this album, and it appears on Echoes, Soulreaper went in a very slight tangent, while still certainly 90s black metal, it was a bit warmer, and a little more experimental and progressive- just barely.
But on Unveiled Nightsky, as if you couldn’t tell from the album title, song titles like “Born of Winter’s Breath”, and “Omen of the Cosmic Order”, as well as the return to the blue Emperor hues of the artwork from Land of Darkness and 2019s Realm of the Bleeding Shadows, Unveiled Nightsky is a return to the more frosty, cosmic style of 90s black metal they have perfected on prior efforts.
The recipe is simple and clear on the influences: Emperor, Dissection, Gates of Ishtar, Unanimated, Sacramentum, Catamenia, etc. Melodic, frosty tremolo-picked riffs with howled vocals and a slight layer of keyboards, though certainly not full-on symphonic black metal.
The Dissection and maybe Dark Funeral (lite) element is particularly strong here, as heard on the second track “Omen of the Cosmic Order”, but all the songs certainly have plenty of hooky, melodic riffs. Especially “Nurtured by the Night”, “Unveiled Nightsky”, “Descent into Hades’ Embrace”, and more restrained, somber “Echoes of a Fallen Crown”. Closer “Drifting into the Depths of Oblivion” ends the album with a gorgeous violin/cello instrumental, an element I’d like to hear more of injected fully into other songs.
But at 30 minutes (28 minutes minus the outro), this feels a little like a long EP, rather than a fully fleshed-out album, and many of the songs just seem to end rather than finish with any sort of climax or closure. Still, what riffs there are are still really good, and Soulreaper has absolutely grasped the genre by the horns, and while very, very productive, I’d like to see him focus a little more on quality, not quantity, as there is something pretty special lurking here.
