Well this album has made 2015 begin with an unexpectedly strong start! Volahn hail from California, and belong to the shadowy Black Twilight Circle – arguably USBM’s very own version of Les Légions Noires. Musically you can hear the French influence seething clearly in the forefront of their sound, however, this (their 2nd full length album) uses Mayan occult theology as a staple for their 6 rituals (hence the bright and interestingly different artwork), allowing them to offer up something a little leftfield in comparison to your regular satanic monochromatic coldness.
Musically, the album kicks of exactly how I’d expect it from a member of this murky and secretive black metal movement – raw, yet brimming with melody and full of interesting ideas and out of the ordinary arrangements. The production is low-fi, adding to the rawness but also boosting the album’s fascinating character – and it’s its character which really carries its charm throughout. There is something fundamentally different here, perhaps described best by comparing how The Chasm have such a stand out ‘different’ sound in their field of death metal. This is an album wrapped in mysticism, chiming and ringing with ancient lore, acerbic guitars hissing hymns as bellowed vocals spit forth historic tales like some archaic shaman off his tits on salvia, spying demons in every corner. Occasional acoustic passages and calming woodwind brings respite from the manic fizz of distortion and heartfelt screaming, also adding to the overall authentic feel to this excellent album.
For me, the highlight of the song writing is how Volahn create their melodies. Of course there is the usual riffage and licks to build momentum and create simplistic earworms, but my favourite is their usage of synth to bolster these, with guitars ringing seemingly out of kilter with the battering drum work at times yet never sounding bad or out of time, such is the strange way they’re used to roll over the rhythm section independently, spreading tuneful echoing beauty and frothing acidic hate in equal measures. Epic in its scope, and powerful in its delivery ’Aq’ab’al’ is a truly stunning musical set piece which needs to be heard to truly understand what it’s all about.
Having only dipped into the world of the Black Twilight Circle previous to my discovery of Volahn, but I will certainly be investigating further from now on if albums of this clarity and quality are commonplace in the movement. Extraordinarily good black metal, conjuring mysticism effortlessly thanks to its impressively deep roots in lore.
(9/10 Lars Christiansen)
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