Our path is long and full of hardships
Let stars protect us with their light
Although the trails grows diaphanous in darkness
We will not forget our way
Sun has long set
The silence of the night caught us with its quietness
We traverse our native land
Surrounded by darkness, time nears midnight.
We've been cast out into the fields in winter:
An insane beast, and not a man
The consciousness grows foggy:
It will forever remain in the books
Every little rustle can be heard on the plains
Goddess of wind is adept in her craft
All secret passageways are open
Forest's behind us, the wolf is with us
A raven circles the night sky
And owls cry somewhere
I do not want to, but I have to
Irrigate this soil with blood
The fog has set like smoke on the arable
The dark is wielding omens
But we still go, as it is our will
The hardships are irrelevant
The secrets of un-illuminated haze
Like naked stone and morning dew
The moon is pale, and through its phantom
Illusions of such wonders everywhere
The hour was late, so seeing them
Surprised him. How can this be?
Are these mirages in the fog,
Or might this be true and it's a sign?
The silhouettes scared with their silence
While peacefully floating above the field in the distance
And shyly disappeared behind a slope
Groves of limes joined the illusion
Every little rustle can be heard on the plains
Goddess of wind is adept in her craft
All secret passageways are open
Forest's behind us, the wolf is with us
A raven circles the night sky
And owls cry somewhere
I do not want to, but I have to
Irrigate this soil with blood
A truly stellar death/doom album with heavy doses of black metal. Tracks like Isolation, Child of Light, and Broken Hymns deliver the sorrowful and icy tone of this album, elevated by the stirring cello compositions of Raphael Weinroth-Browne. The album delivers a deeply satisfying crescendo in Becoming Intangible before stirring the soul once again with Epilogue. Matt Richardson
Gaerea's first release of "Unsettling Whispers" was in 2018, and since, they dared define a "black metal" niche of their own, they dared to walk a new path and stir shit up a bit in the realm of BM, this album is a masterpiece and a milestone proving that it can be done, provided the band can pull it off, and they did, oh they did! Gloomy, dark, post-BM sludgy whatever, it's Gaerea, and this one belongs in my BC collection, the end. sachavonkarl74
The first 30 seconds of "Revenge by Fire" convinced me to get the whole album! It is a face-melting blend of speed and black metal, reminiscent of Hellripper! KVAEN is a Swedish solo project much like Hellripper but many known guest musicians helped J. Björnfot in his endeavor. Altogether it is really a solid debut album, I loved the melodies and the pace changes in the second half too, ending with a "calm" instrumental one. Well-done!! sachavonkarl74
Abigail Williams has had a weird career with hiatuses and lineup changes, but they have finally perfected their sound on Walk Beyond the Dark. This album has such a refreshing and natural feeling that makes it one of the top atmospheric black metal albums of recent years. Ryan