Driving wind and rain engulfs me
Face down in the blood of my kin
Our kingdom decimated
Kin of mine exterminated
Notched blades and ruined faces fill my eyes
My hollowed shell bears witness to our fate
The horrors of war fill my heart with terror
I feel my life ebb away
Agony, desperation fills this ashen desolation
My heart burns, death comes swiftly
Kin of mine, I will avenge thee
Crawling forth as I choke on blood and bile
Through filth and entrails, corpses are defiled
An undead spectre risen from the grave
To wreak vengeance depraved…
Yellow glowing eyes meet mine, monstrous visage with shining blade
I reach for broken sword and scream in agony
Fingers snap ‘neath iron-shod boot…
A blast of brightest blue illumes the blackened sky
My assailant engulfed in sapphire flame
Sorcerers rain arcane hell
I laugh through bile-flecked lips
The greatest sorcerer is He who commands our ranks
Agony, desperation fills this ashen desolation
My heart burns, death comes swiftly
Kin of mine, I will avenge thee
I awake, renewed and reforged
Power courses through my veins
Suddenly I understand
I am healed and imbued with magick
Through blackest arts shall thy will be done
We will not surrender
Through blackest arts shall thy will be done
We will fight to our dying breath
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
True crime gets a blackened hardcore twist on the UK band's debut album, inspired by an unsolved mystery from 2013. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 23, 2022
Californian quartet defining themselves as Sci-Fi black metal, maybe due to cosmic and interstellar topics, sounding like blackened death metal too ("The Maw"). It's a well-balanced melodic black metal album, with some fast-paced tracks and nice rhythmic transitions reminding me of Swiss band Celtic Frost (e.g. Terminal Odyssey). In other words not overly dominated by drum speed and also not sounding as extreme or as raw as some BM can be. sachavonkarl74