I don’t know about the rest of you, but work has been a fucking bear this year. Since starting tenish years ago, 2023 might be my lowest contribution to the site. It also caused me to miss a lot of great records I was looking forward to. Thank the sweet metal lord that we have TYMHM. And this one is special. Since 2017, Malokarpatan has been a mainstay on Grier‘s top ten lists, and this year is no different. Never one to settle for a particular style or deliver an album structured like its predecessor, Vertumnus Caesar finds the band continuing to push boundaries and deliver even more riffs and mindfuckery. And, as always, it’s difficult to say if it’s better than another in their catalog. It exists as a succession of the others without being a sequel. It’s just there, and I’m here for it.
Like Nordkarpatenland, the album kicks off with a strange, yet soothing instrumental to set the mood. Then, “Kočár Postupuje Temnomodrými Dálavami na Juhozápad” bursts forth in galloping fury. Though not in a traditional sense. That’s not how Malokarpatan rolls. With rasping vocals slathering the ether, the riffs gallop along in Iron Maiden fashion. As the song progresses, the intensity increases. The drums hammer a trench in the ground as the tight, pinched Mercyful Fate guitar play chases you down it. Then, it all falls away. Prayer ensues, engulfed in haunting harpsichord. Then, the guitar solos are unleashed—tearing through the sky like bloodthirsty bats. Like so many of the band’s songs, there are no rules. Yet, even with all the chaotic shifts, it’s still a pleasing, complete song.
The follow-up track, “Vertumnus Caesar,” tips the previous song on its head and dumps out a hard-hitting black metal piece. But, again, there’s nothing that truly identifies the songwriting as black metal. After toying with some blackened riffage, old-school trad metal grooves and wails away. Like its predecessor, it eventually abandons it in favor of a key-riddled outro. Now that you have a taste of what to expect, “Maharal a Golem” arrives to crush all expectations. It kicks off with a crushing, second-wave black metal attack, leveraging some haunting, cathedral chants. Then, it transitions into a weird, industrial passage that somehow keeps the mood while completely changing it. When the original riffage resurfaces, the vicious vocals lead a face-ripping charge to the song’s conclusion.
I could go on forever about Vertumnus Caesar but the final two highlights have to be “Panstvo Salamandrov Jest v Kavernách Zeme” and “I Hle, Tak Zachádza Imperiálna Hviezda.” The first track is a six-and-a-half-minute journey through multiple Malokarpatan landscapes. While it’s rooted in heavy metal attributes, it explores so many nooks and crannies. Beginning with slick, intricate guitar work, the song explores a haunted cathedral before taking a walk through a majestic forest where fairies play flutes. Then, it ends with a rumbling drum outro that is so out of place it works. But the closer takes everything experienced on the instrumental and goes even further. After a painstakingly slow build, the song gets moving with some old-school gallops before exploring some upbeat, folky characteristics (is that cowbell I hear?). Then, it begins to slow, wrapping itself in a majestic blanket of key atmospheres, growing in strength until everything goes quiet. In its place, a calmness overcomes you, slowing your heart rate until you quietly fall asleep.
Tracks to Check Out: All of them
