And on album number 4, the quartet (Farago – vocals,/guitars, Samael – guitars, Apophis – drums, Thanatos – bass) has done what most bands do this far into a discography: remained consistent in their sound so as not to lose fans, but developed enough for the fans to also be happy with the band’s growth. (We fans are a fickle lot)

One of the very minor changes is that the vocals of Farago have changed just a smidge; they are a little more shouty than raspy, reminding me a little of Nergal’s more recent Behemoth output (listen to the 4th track “Thanatos, Embrace of the Night”), and I think musically that’s also a pretty fair comparison, maybe mixed with a little Watain. It’s black metal, but it’s polished and a little burlier, with some grandiose, ritualistic vibes and a few keyboards and atmospheric segues (i.e., “Lux Fulget”, “Of Stones Sleep and Death” and “The Accuser”- both of which have some excellent piano work).

And while the opener “In Noctem” had me a little concerned – it has one of those ‘drop’ teases, but for black metal)- still, it’s mainly about solid, frosty, 6/8 melodic tremolo-picked riffs. For example, the true opener “Tabula Rasa”, the excellently melodic “Glorification”, and “De Profundis” (where Lethian of Nornír) also adds her traditional raspier black metal shrieks).

Closer “Hypnos, I See you” wraps up the fine affair with a mix of everything on the album’s longest track, and definitely leans into the newer Behemoth sound, and a sound I think Servant does very well.

But never have I felt so vehemently bullish or confident about what I am about to say…

If you like Scotland’s Celtic black act Soar, you absolutely must check out Italy’s Duir, and their second album, Catarsi.

While Duir is Celtic for “oak”, the album, rather than about Celtic legends and lore, is actually about a soldier’s struggles during WWI. However, the music itself, especially when rendered with a pretty constant Hurdy-Gurdy and bagpipe presence, courtesy of Thomas Zonato, is where Soar fans will no doubt have their interest not just piqued, but shattered into smithereens.

The rangy 6 songs in 46 minutes don’t quite have the epic scale and scope of Soar, nor some of the cleaner moments and vocals, as Duir focuses far more on the more intense, galloping 6/8 tremolo-picked moments. However, there are still a few reflective, introspective slowdowns and mid-paced moments (i.e. start of “Del Giorno”).

It takes a couple of minutes for the Soar sound to jump out from the opener “Manifesto”, but when it does, the album never looks back as Zonato and cohorts deliver some top notch melodic/atmospheric black metal riffs and structures that have that Winterfylleth, Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch or recent Inherits the Void backbone, but the bagpipes and hurdy gurdy cement the Celtic tones with confidence and ease. The production is crisp and clean, and the vocals stay in a higher register rasp throughout.

As a concept album, it needs to be listened to as a whole, and while the songs sort of carry shifts in the concept and story,  unless you understand Italian lyrics to follow along with our protagonist, you’d be hard-pressed to follow along musically. That said, I could at least fathom something coming to an end for the album closer “Oltre l’alba”.

But riff-wise, songs like “Di nessuno”, “Impeto” (which does have a little musical pathos), “Della Notte” (with its exquisite flute work), and the closer “Oltre l’alba” are all top-notch, enthralling songs that make for one of 2026’s better albums in the style.

They apparently met way back in 2005, but recently decided to come together and form a project to pay homage to 90s melodic black/death metal, such as (a less symphonic) Emperor, Gates of Ishtar, Embracing, Naglfar, Dissection, Unanimated, etc.

And based on this solid debut, I’d say mission accomplished, as the 45 minutes contained on Determined to Death and Beyond absolutely nail that era and sound. If you need actual, immediate proof, go to the album’s closing track, a ripping, spot-on cover of Emperor’s “Ye Entrancemperium”; when it started, I actually thought my playlist had switched to my recent Emperor concert playlist.

Opener “Above the Ice” gets the ball rolling, and makes no bones about the duo’s desired sound – they are not reinventing the wheel at all, and they know it. Semi-frosty, but razor-sharp melodic riffs, harsh, rasped vocals, some light synths – it’s all here, and the second track, “Wrath of the Witches”, leans into it even more, especially the latter Emperor song structures.

“Forest of Horrors” dips more into a melodic death metal pace and structure, complete with an acoustic bridge before an impressive blast beat and riff, before the mid-album instrumental “Requiem for a Doomed Soul” gives you a little break.

The back end of the album kicks off with “Abysmal Ascent”, complete with some Old Mans Child (another possible influence here)  / The Pagan Prosperity styled clean vocals, the slower “Path of Penitence”, and ultra spot on Dissection-ish “Into the Temple of Light”, by now, you kinda know what Archaic Oath are doing, where you can sort of predict time changes and signatures, but its still an enjoyable, nostalgic album that nails its chosen style.

That said, at a trim 67 minutes on 1 CD as opposed to Maere’s 2 CD, 84-ish minute affair, the band has trimmed a little fat, if still full of lengthy atmospherics and bridges. But as with Maere, it’s a sight to behold when they do lock into a melodic 6/8 gallop.

The 7 songs here (the 8th song is a cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit”) range from 7 to 10 minutes, and frankly, the opener, “Heal Me”, did nothing for me initially as the album’s first single. The vocals, as with Maere are leaning more into the shouty, angsty style, as opposed to the band’s blackened earlier efforts, and there is a little less blistering black metal contained within.

And while “Heal Me” does still have some more furious moments buried within its more mopey throes (like the rest of the album), it’s some other tracks that got my attention a little more. For example, the album’s longest track (almost 11 minutes), and standout “Keep Me Longing”|, with its gorgeous piano intro and backdrop, leads right into one of the band’s signature melodic jaunts that burst through the despondency with suddenness throughout the song.

The album’s second longest track, “Without You I’m Just a Sad Song”, is the album’s most languid song, with a mostly mid-paced, almost metalcore pacing, even with a killer black metal blast about halfway through. Then “No Grave But the Sea” is then one of the album’s more direct tracks, with a more urgent pace throughout. “With Autumn Ill Surrender” is another more restrained but shimmery track and has one of my favorite melodic black metal gallops on the album about 3:15 in, as does ” Was Just another Promise You Couldn’t Keep,” about 6:50 in. Svalbard’s Serena Cherry makes an appearance on the album’s most vitriolic/black metal track, “Too Late For Goodbyes”, adding some clean vocals to the fray.

That all said, Scorched Earth isn’t really an improvement over its predecessor, despite the shortened length. It is basically an almost identical album, where, like porn,  you have to wade through quite a bit of filler to get to the good bits. But boy are those good bits worth it. And I get the unnerving feeling these guys are headed towards  Deafheaven-like, commercial turn on the next album, but we shall see.

Oof. What a dick.

So why did I grab the promo for the band’s 5th album? Especially as I have not heard any of the prior three after the debut? Well, full disclosure, I glanced at the promo email and thought it was ‘Chaos Inception‘ the black/death band from Alabama.  It wasn’t until I started listening, and checked the band name again that I went back to see my old review of the debut. Second, I’ve been digging German metal in 2024 with the likes of Asharhaddon, Dauþuz, Opus Irae, Kanonenfieber, Suffering Souls, Far Beyond, Atronos, Unhallowed Deliverance, Stiriah and label mates Servant.

Then there’s the fact the album comes out of the gate red hot with the album title track, immediately grabbing my attention and then I decided to stick with it, and I’m glad I did, as Wherever We Roam….is a blisteringly solid black metal record.

If you are into the simpler, more direct, less symphonic, slightly melodic stylings of the second wave of black metal, with bands like Dark Funeral, Funeral Mist, Watain, 1349, and such, this album is for you. It is just frosty razor-sharp riffs, upon frosty razor-sharp riffs. No synths, and a few atmospheric segments, but otherwise this is blisteringly slicing black metal, with a perfectly searing Woodshed Studio production (Secrets of the Moon, Obscura, Sulphur Aeon, The Ruins of Beverast).

The second track, “Ideal Sodom” is the perfect blend of viciousness and melody, before the third track cools off the album’s white-hot start with the mid-paced march that dominates “Golden Gates And Terrene Light”  before “Bridges Aflame” unleashes another absolutely scorching number, with a bristling Celtic Frost -ish groove mid-song. 

The rest of the album is simply perfect, modern black metal. From “No Throne Withstands”, to the moodier (for the start) “The World Wants Us Dead” with some clean vocals, searing “Only In Darkness” with its subtle synth use and more clean vocals, and more ritualistic, atonal closer “Engravings On A Gleaming Pedestal”.

Hey you. Chaos Invocation dudes, I hope this makes up for my dickery back for your debut. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

And to the surprise of no one, it was exactly as advertised;  ‘melodic-yet-furious black metal’, being spot on. Certainly, in line with the rest of the label’s varied roster, Servant is indeed atmospheric black metal, but they have a little more bite (and corpse paint) rather than some of the more purely atmospheric, ‘gaze-y’ or jangly black metal out there (i.e labelmates Ellende) and with little more traditional colder, black metal (Watain maybe?) as well, I man look at the album title. (And blistering tracks like”Devil” and the aptly named “Fury”).

But when they do deliver a ‘melodic yet furious’ moment, it’s pretty fucking good. For example, the main riff of “Temple” and the third track “Sin”, at the 3;15 mark, delivers simply a perfect black metal riff that really gave me goosebumps with its frosty melodicity. The penultimate track “Litany”, is the epitome of the melodic yet furious mantra, with some savagely melodic tremlo-picked blasting, especially the fucking furious last few moments.

They can also slow things down and get a little moody every so often as heard on the despondent instrumental “Hope” (certainly not a hopeful-sounding song at all), parts of “Death” and closer “Magick”, where they do get a little more gaze-y, with a piano and slower riffage to end an at time superb black metal album.

Things kick off with “King of Hearts” which opens with an instrumental acoustic passage before the fretless bass work kicks in and the tempo picks up.   One thing that is noticeable off the bat is the keen sense of intensity and melody.  The production is also pristinely clean.  This is quite an ambitious release at a run time of over forty-eight minutes.  “Axiom Architect” is one of the most aggressive tracks. I am curious about what session members join Klusenitzer on this release as I was unable to find that information.  The guitar solo on this track sounds like it could have been done by either Danny Tunker (Former Aborted, Spawn of Possession) or Christian Muenzer (Obscura).

“Our Souls Set Sail” is another fantastic track that does an impressive job of building from an acoustic intro into some gorgeous melodies. The clean vocals on this one is in key and do not sound forced.  I am quite impressed with these arrangements.  This is a bit of a longer album with a run time of over forty-eight minutes.

I find it interesting that this release and the band Alkaloid both have releases this year. Both projects feature Klausenitzer and have similar vibes at times.  Check it out when it comes out. I cannot say enough amazing things about Klausenitzer’s bass work. “Sehraff Streaming” also opens with an acoustic introduction before things turn into a progressive death metal clinic. “Sword Swallower” is the heaviest track on Tulpa.  It also has some of the craziest lead work on the album.

“Sister in Black” opens with a clean tone bass instrumental with some synths added.  The placement of this track is at a great spot in the album as there is a lot to process up until this point.  “The Devil’s Tongue” proceeds to go back into a more aggressive arrangement. “Queen of Hearts” is one of two tracks on the album over seven minutes. “Dig Deeper” opens with more acoustic clean-tone guitars before things pick up.  One thing is for sure there is enough groove on this album to keep your headbanging throughout.

“Lunar Assailant” is the other song on here over seven minutes and has a nice melodic bill like a lot of the tracks on Tulpa.  If you are a fan of Obscura or Alkaloid, I cannot see why you would not dig this.  Thumbs up for this one.

The band’s transition from Equilibrium rip-off ( albeit a really good one), into a more stirring and epic style of pagan black metal akin to latter Moonsorrow and Viking era Bathory has been a welcome transition and this EP (on a new label, AOP Records) certainly hammers those influences home with rousing, sweeping grandiosity.

Jenseits (‘Beyond’) is one 40-minute song broken up into 4 parts, ans was recorded in 3D (whatever that means), but what you get is an absolutely stunning, immersive 4o minutes that’s a joy to absorb in one sitting on good headphones.

Once again, the massive Hans Zimmer-esque Brass orchestration dominates the sprawling mid-paced black metal vistas along with choirs, keyboards, duduk and flutes making the EP the band’s most cinematic, bombastic and grandiose release to date. Guitarist/vocalist/composer Simon Schillinger should look into scoring movies and video games.

Right out of the gate, we get the rousing clean vocals and choirs that start “Kapitel I: Freiheit” and lead into a stern, mid-paced stomp which continues for “Kapitel II: Dualität”, but with a sterner militant gait and a super rousing, brass filled climax to finish the track.  The third track, “Kapitel III – Reflexionen” is a reflective 5-minute number that’s all acoustic and mellow before the EPs 15-minute closing track highlights what Finsterforst has been perfecting over the last few years; a sprawling epic with a stirring choral bridge and even some blast beats at the 10 and a half minute mark, that’s truly magnificent.

The track ends with a reprise from the choral introduction of the first track, tying everything together into one lengthy EP that’s well worth your money (longer than some albums) and shows Finsterforst, whatever label they are on, is a force to be reckoned with in the genre.

This review is for the 8 song album, but the physical copy has a bonus track “Medomai”.  The eight songs are all German titles, sung in the band’s native tongue, much like other German Black Metal bands, such as Porta Nigra.

“Faðir” opens up at 6 minutes and really not much breathing room to be had as the song starts with a fast speed, not quite blasting and the melodic guitar riffing traverses into more violent riffing as the song picks up the pace and gets into full blast mode.  Plenty of monstrous double bass  to be had and the variety of tonal shifts, during the mid-paced parts, blend nicely.  There are some well-placed keyboards too, making the sound more expansive.  Phillip Thienger has a nice set of pipes as well as his vocals are gruff, black metal for sure, but not as screechy, he also let’s some screams out too.

“Amor Fati” is next and at 9 minutes is the longest track.  Beginning with some soft guitars and light drumming it is evident the band are unafraid to incorporate the Pagan influences throughout the album.  Around the minute mark the rest of the black metal music hits and the atmospheric Pagan elements, still evident, are more in the background, but being played simultaneously with the black metal music is rather cool to hear.  The song picks up the pace, then slows down with acoustic elements over the brutal music.  The vocals getting into the higher register range, but still not grating to these ears.  The rhythm section at the 3.40 part is excellent.  The blending of the sounds are terrific.  The isolated guitar riff, soon thereafter, is the Holy Shit part.  This part goes into a bombastic vicious blast and is hellbent, not for leather, but rather taking your jaw, ripping it open and then using your lifeless body as a tennis corpse racket.  The song shifts in a multitude of directions with a plethora of signature time changes.  This is truly an expansive track.  The addition of the choral vocal moments at the 6.55 section is killer.

“Odem” opens with atmospheric acoustic elements before the harder music comes blasting through your speakers.  The mid-paced heaviness is vicious and David Kempf is quite a monstrous drummer.  His drum rolls, cymbal hits and pummeling double bass work hand in hand with the lighter elements, when he’s utilizing those methods.  What a damn fine drummer he is.  He also became the new drummer for Germany’s technical brutal death metal band, and personal fave, Profanity.  Check out this track to learn some killer technical black metal drumming folks.

Firtan is a damn good band and I am totally digging Marter.  The production is a bit more streamlined and maybe has more of a vibe to their earlier material, whereas their last full length Okeanos, had a fuller sound.  All the instruments sound great on this.  The guitar melodies and drumming (double bass moments) really cut through powerfully.  The Pagan elements are still ever present, but had more of an influence on their earlier releases, as the band, in some sections, get into the post-modern black metal elements where despair and coldness are used to create a more emotive soundscape.  This is a damn good release.

And so album number five continues the trend, being a bit less black and hateful/shrieky and a little more shouty, post-metal patience. But certainly,  the duo’s infatuation with 10 minute or so long songs (often a bit of a drag) is offset with the superb ability to meld shimmery post-metal with artfully melodic but despondent black metal melodies and crescendoes is something to behold.

At well over an hour, spanning 2 CDs or LPs, covering every single note is a tall order, but personally, when the duo locks into one of the many more brittle, seething 6/8 black metal riffs I’m reminded a little of Vallendusk, as they have the same simply perfect grasp of somber but scathing melodies. And when they find that sweet spot it is absolutely stunning. Now, there is quite a bit of filler between those moments, lots of slow-burning builds, piano and acoustic ebbs and flows, but the payoff is more than worth it.

The opening trifecta of “I, Pallbearer”, “Sing for the Damage We’ve Done” (featuring Neige of Alcest– a ballpark stylistic comparison for those needing it),  and “Us Against December Skies” all thankfully get to the good stuff early making for the 7 and eight-minute songs hold your attention, respectively, with some simply killer, harmonic black metal riffs. Then there is a little more focus on delicate, patient,  post-metal structures for the 11 minute “I’m All About the Dusk”.

Another 10-minute song, “Three Empty Words” comes right out of the gate with some urgent, angry blasting that you might hear on a Svalbard album, another comparison I think is valid at times. Then there is a bit of a lull on the album with “Once Upon a Winter”, “An Ocean Between Us” and “Silver Needle//Golden Dawn”,  all in the 7  to 10-minute range, and I’m not sure if the album is just starting to drag on and repeat a bit or listener exhaustion, but I’m starting to think about other things, even though “Once Upon a Winter” has an excellent, furious closeout and “Silver Needle//Golden Dawn” has some nice mid-song moments.

Luckily, the penultimate track “Time as a Ghost” (the track I heard first that got me go ahead and check the band out) ends the album (cover of Placebo’s “Song to Say Goodbye” notwithstanding), with one of my favorite album’s standouts, having one of the album’s better melodic jaunts/riffs that gets me riled up every time I hear it.

Mære is an excellent album, from a band that has locked into a pretty specific sound for a couple of albums now, and while some of the fat could be trimmed, it’s still a superb, ambitious album that could be in my year-end list due to the sheer number of excellent moments that make the fat worth it. And I for one am glad I’ve finally discovered this excellent duo and their killer back discography.