Some blood, a corvid, a hint of Bathory and Poe, some fire and blackened doom from this Australian band made up of past and present members of Nazxul, Nox Inferi, Nocturnes Mist and Pestilential Shadows. Following up 2018 album ‘God Of Thunder, God Of War’, you can kind of anticipate this is going to be one for those that worship the twilight of the gods as you settle down to listen to the 5 epic tracks that span the album’s playing time. Do not expect anything particularly fast here, this is measured by slow to mid pace and an absorbing listen that is more about the atmosphere around it than anything else.
‘Journey’ takes us on just that with a rugged and powerful storm-cloud of a melody blowing our explorer over desolate landscape and making it difficult to stay upright. There’s a feeling of grim determination and grit here and a pagan vibe to the music especially as vocalist Diablore expands the story with an ominous spoken word part. This is certainly not his main style though and he mainly rasps in a manner that is closer to a whisper than a scream and quite understandably so too. It takes a little bit of getting used to and towards the end of this first sprawling number when he states “our journey has just begun” you should have made up your mind whether you want to stay the distance or not.
A lengthy instrumental passage of booming drum and jangling guitar take us into ‘The Broken Land’ and transport perhaps to a time of gunslingers in a post-apocalyptic world. It draws you in before the full ballast and mournful melody drop, the whispered verse ghoulish and eerie, sharply slithering and invading the ears. It’s grim and far from uplifting stuff but along with the unrelenting plod of the beat kind of compels you to try and listen to what is being told, rather than sucking the life out of you. I could certainly have done with the lyrics being provided here but I guess the fact that they have not makes it all the more mysterious. Combined with the vocal style and the orchestral start of ‘Veles Is Here’ there is a bit of that old Summoning magic at play here and we are very much in a pagan place that is dark and foreboding. Musically there is also a touch of Primordial and the fact that Ichor have just consumed you with three numbers spanning 30 minutes playing time is not lost on me either.
The last couple of tracks are a bit shorter and as one would expect from a number entitled ‘Fight, Blood, Fire, Hate’ things are a bit faster and designed to bounce one around. With (very) different vocals this could actually have the steel bite of The Meads Of Asphodel about it and it is certainly going to do the job of rousing listener both on album and live. Constantly trailing us on this voyage the ‘Black Raven’ finally gets its own song and swoops down to feast on the carrion of the fallen. With a gorgeous mid-section keyboard it may have been gulping down the odd eyeball but is not doing so without some form of poise and elegance. As for Ichor and although I was not sure of this album at first it has got beneath the skin and with its epic story proven to be a bit of a page-turner which has endeared my heathen heart.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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