2012s Stormwinds of Ages, was the last time I heard them.  And frankly, I wasn’t aware they were still around despite a recording and rerelease of 2006s Regenesis Creation in 2019  Anyway, this is a long-winded, clumsy way of saying they are indeed still around and producing solid albums.

Lone original members Kristoph (keys, drums) and William (guitars), find themselves on a perfect label in 2024 with a revamped lineup that notably includes ex-Vex and Whore of Babylon (two bands I rather enjoy) vocalist Orlando Logan Olivero. Now let’s get this out of the way right away, I loved Olivero’s work in Vex and Whore of Babylon, and here his growls and rasps are solid, but his array of clean vocals, where he’s going for an ICS Vortex/Snowy Shaw thing is a bit hit and miss.

However, that’s a minor quibble, as everything else here is damn solid as Awaken the Greylight delivers almost an hour of symphonic black metal with excellent keyboards and dynamic songwriting that covers plenty of gaits and moods.

From the Arabic swirl of the opener “As the Pillars Were Raised”, through the dramatic, high octane “Traverse The Vorthonian Passage” (where some of Olivero’s cleans work well), moodier “A Dire Flight for the Black Fragment” and bombastic standouts “Seek the Last Priestess of Tyyk”  and “They Beheld the Chainbreaker’s Crowning Defiance” to the superbly melodic “The Excillion Ontogenesis” (which imbued Rotting Christ/Septic Flesh) and the closing title track (the album’s back half really excels), the album is a professional, well written and well-delivered example of Symphonic Black metal.

Will it beat out Ensom’s Poimandres as my favorite symphonic black metal album of the year? No, but I doubt anything will. But it’s good to see these guys still at it and churning out solid material 25 years after their debut, when they were considered an American afterthought in the genre.

Well to that I’d answer with “How about a US symphonic black metal band that has been around since 1998, have released 4 full length albums, have sounded convincingly  and honestly European without falling into whatever trend is popular at the time?”. Yeah, I’m talking about Texas’ Vesperian Sorrow.

Admittedly, it’s pretty slim pickings when it comes to US based Symphonic black metal as I can only recall a handful of top quality ones off the top of my head like Veneficum, recent discovery Anagnorisis, Withering Soul and such, but Vesperian Sorrow have been at it for a while now, and their fourth album shows a consistency and quality that deserves much more attention than they and the genre get.

With an approach that obviously culls from any band in the opening paragraph, (and some early Arcturus, I might add, but you’ll see why later), Vesperian Sorrow has a confident command of the genre with a convincing 90s European sound; bombastic, yet melodic and slicing riffs laced with majestic and laden with synths, whether sweeping regal chords or delicate piano tinkling. And those synths aren’t just window dressing or sugar coating, the music and riffs are equally adept and ooze quality and intensity. Throw in a typically lavish production and plenty of varied rasps, deep spoken words, growls and screams, and the recipe is complete.

Clocking in at just under an hour, Stormwinds of Ages, gets a little long winded at times (the songs average length hovers around 5-6 minutes) , but on the whole the material is excellent. After the requisite short intro “Sanguis Vitam Est”, the title track which is a perfect example of the bands overall sound, encompassing all of their influences and their own slight but sturdy thrash tones. The scathing start and keys of “An Empire to Mourn” really recalled Skyfire for me, while “Casting Dawn into Shadows” features some well done female vocals and sprawling solo work  to make it one of the album’s standouts. “Crown of Glass” mixes stern Dimmu Borgir-ish march n blasts with fuller orchestration and and a crystalline mid song break. “Legacies Befallen” is a pretty standard bombastic number with a slightly more somber tangent while “Eye of the Clock Tower” has a more bouncy, melodic gait and trot with some nice guest clean vocals (see below) . “Oracle of the Ashes” is the albums catchiest track with a nice chunky chorus  and its follow up”Relics of Impurity”  is one of the albums most vicious tracks before a clean vocal break and stern close out. Finally, the penultimate track, “Death She Cried” slows things down with something reminiscent of Cruelty and the Beast ‘s or Dusk and Her Embrace‘s slower more Gothic moments. The wonderfully titled “Of Opiates and Accolades” close the album out with another, intense, varied example of the genre that ends the album perfectly.

As if they need anymore credibility, the album features guest solos from Carl August Tidemann of Winds/Arcturus ( as well as some guest vocals from Erika Tandy, formerly of Autumn Tears, Jason McMaster of Watchtower and Jon Zig of Sarcolytic) to make an already top notch effort even more enjoyable and complete.