It’s going to be a good winter, if this platter casually tossed into the ether by the untried and untested Nubivagant is anything to go by. Sure, I admit, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic with economic meltdown and mass unemployment unknown for generations perhaps just around the corner. And all the pubs are closing early. Sooooo, let’s start again…. It’s going to be a bloody awful winter. But, global pandemic aside, at least the heavy metal underground continues to spew forth enough top notch sustenance. So, even if this is the apocalypse – then we’re going to have an excellent choice of soundtrack… Step forth Nubivagant, the bastard child of Urfaust, Primordial and Atlantean Codex, to break god’s commandments against a blackened background that supplies an emotionally driven atmosphere with its own gravitational pull. The outfit isn’t exactly untried and untested. In fact, we reviewed another release featuring Omega, the force behind Nubivagant only two months ago – Fides Inversa’s Historia Nocturna. He’s also a regular in Blut Aus Nord, Frostmoon Eclipse and Martröð and now putting his various talents to use here on this solo effort that sounds like an offering to the universe’s forgotten powers.

Eerie guitars, humming basslines and urgent percussion provide the incense, smoke and fire – but, in reality, they are merely scorching the ground to make the path for Omega’s magnificent tenor. Vocals steeped in occult yearning, taking your breath away when the elements are all mixed together into first track Wonders of the Invisible World. Unlike some of its black metal brethren, Roaring Eye isn’t filled with layers of complexity but the hypnotic and authentic nature of this release more than makes up for that and brings its own blended originality. Omega crosses the black metal divide into rock and doom in a similar way to Primordial. Even though you’re not going to mistake one for the other any time soon you might just get some flashbacks. Just as important here are the devilish, occult influences of bands like Ruins of Beverast or, even more directly here, Urfaust for whom unfettered emotion and discovering new realms and long suppressed emotions are embedded into the sonic tapestry.

So, if soundscapes rather than intricate song structure are your thing, then Roaring Eye might just prop up your ailing psyche this autumn, or at least give you something else to think about. There’s excitement in the audacity of the sound which reminds me, at least vocally, of the clean, plate glass experience of stunning doom releases like Nightfall or even While Heaven Wept’s Of Empire’s Forlorn. But this is black metal, so the spiral descends more infinitely downwards rather than up to the heavens. Raw emotions longing for the darkened corners of the universe where forgotten gods have retreated and where tracks like The Furnace of Apollyon echo infinitely, calling on them to reawaken. Roaring Eye promises much in the opening minutes and delivers on that right through to the end – even though just how rapt you are by Omega’s vocal performance will probably be the test of whether this basic formula carries you through. But there are contours in the sound that sustain Omega’s arcane sermon as it reverberates through the midnight cloisters and are clearly designed to propel you further into the vortex. This is undoubtedly going to be one of the albums of 2020 that sticks in my brain. Some might be startled by the singular approach – dare I say just a little variation on the theme later in the album might have provided this album with another reference point to draw in a few more listeners from the fringes? But that would be missing the point of this hypnotic dirge. Because anyone who truly gives themselves up to this driving spell will find the album feels like nothing like its 40 minutes run time.

(8.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)

https://www.facebook.com/nubivagant.blackmetal

https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com/album/nubivagant-roaring-eye