Vorga

Vorga – Beyond the Palest Star Review

Vorga – Beyond the Palest Star Review

By Kenstrosity on March 26, 2024 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 62 comments

“Ah, space. How little we know of thee. How awestruck we are by thine crushing beauty. It’s no surprise, as I noted in my review for Vorga’s debut record, Striving Toward Oblivion, that artists across various fields and mediums draw inspiration from the immense, unknowable thing that is space. With such a deep well to draw from—as much in terms of raw data and information as in fiction and imagination—I doubt even the relative microcosm of black metal could ever exhaust this rich and ever-expanding resource. Picking up right where they left off in 2022, German melodic black metal quartet Vorga blast off into the deepest reaches of inky blackness.” MOARGA Vorga.

Sworn – A Journey Told Through Fire [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

Sworn – A Journey Told Through Fire [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Carcharodon on December 18, 2023 in Things You Might Have Missed 2023, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 45 comments

“Hailing from Bergen, Norway,Sworn have been toiling away in relative anonymity since 2005. Two early, and frankly unremarkable, records were followed by a nine-year gap before the release of 2018’s very good, Dark Stars and Eternity. Melodic black metal with a ton of atmosphere, and sounding more Finnish than Norwegian for much of its run, the album was only really hampered by a slightly questionable mix. There is no question, however, that it represented a real step up in quality for the quartet when compared to their first two outings. Scroll forward to July this year and, still unsigned, Sworn dropped their fourth LP, A Journey Told through Fire.” The fire still burns.

Astralborne – Across the Aeons Review

Astralborne – Across the Aeons Review

By Kenstrosity on July 26, 2023 in Reviews, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 65 comments

“There’s something special about a melodic death metal band unafraid to reach into the depths of brutality in the pursuit of killer tunes. Bands like Nawabs of Destruction and The Beast of Nod created some of my favorite metal albums of recent years by utilizing an equal measure of brutal and hyper-melodic elements. Now it looks like Astralborne, a melodic death metal trio hailing from Ohio, prepare themselves to officially join that exclusive category with their upcoming opus Across the Aeons.” Resistance is brutal.

Non Est Deus – Legacy Review

Non Est Deus – Legacy Review

By Carcharodon on May 11, 2023 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 60 comments

“The last record from Non Est Deus, Impious, impressed me. I’ll admit, not to quite the same degree as Leiþa or Kanonenfieber, the other two projects from Germany’s black metal maestro, Noise. Still, it scored a highly respectable 3.5 and, really, my complaints were minor quibbles. When I recently sat down to interview Noise, he explained to me the concept for the fourth Non Est Deus platter. He took stories from the Old Testament and, essentially, imagined what would happen if you took God or the Holy Spirit, or whatever you want to call it, out of the equation. Answer? Everything goes to shit.” God’s away on business.

Inherits the Void – The Impending Fall of the Stars Review

Inherits the Void – The Impending Fall of the Stars Review

By Thus Spoke on January 30, 2023 in Reviews, Melodic Black Metal, 26 comments

“The middle of the Venn diagram of melodic and atmospheric is where I find my favorite kind of black metal. Sizzling with the energy and catchiness of epic tremolo refrains and blastbeating tempos, and shimmering with veils of synth. If it’s a good example at least. Hence, I rushed to pick up Inherits the Void’s sophomore record The Impending Fall of the Stars as soon as I saw the magic adjectives melodic and atmospheric applied to their black metal style.” Void estate planning.

Vorga – Striving Toward Oblivion Review

Vorga – Striving Toward Oblivion Review

By Kenstrosity on February 3, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 96 comments

“Space. Black metal. It’s a match made in heaven! People have been writing black metal albums about space for decades, and it doesn’t seem to matter how oversaturated that specific niche gets. Metalheads eat it up. I eat it up. Space is such a massive thing anyway that the possibilities are quite literally infinite to our comparatively minuscule imaginations, so in that way it makes sense that there’s always a new invader breaching the bulkheads. Enter Vorga and their debut full-length, Striving toward Oblivion.” Space inwaders.