Oh man. That’s it, that’s the review.
In all seriousness, I don’t know what else to add. This is a perfect album.
You want more? Sure, let me see.
Creepy synths? Check. Perfectly shrieky vocals enmeshed with cavernous soliloquys? Check check. Catchy yet inventive and unique? Check check check.
From the mastermind behind Old Sorcery and Warmoon Lord, we have another new kick ass project, Argenthorns. While the name of the project is nowhere near as perfectly spot on, its first album is rather above and beyond. Now, for those who know me, they’d say: “of course you’d write that, you Finnish black metal harlot”. It’s true, for I do have a specific preference for black metal coming from Finland, which is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing because, frankly, most of it is brilliant. But a curse because of the oddly high amount of extremely problematic bands and labels. We stay far away from those in this house of the anti-Lord!
No shade on compatriots Moonlight Sorcery, who shook the symphonic black metal status quo with their first EP Piercing through the Frozen Eternity last year, but this is the best new symphonic black metal album I’ve listened to in the past ten years. This one should be up there with the greats. It’s on par with Anorexia Nervosa’s New Obscurantis Order and Dimmu Borgir’s Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. It’s better than anything Cradle of Filth ever did in this genre (I’m biased). Carach Angren and Limbonic Art could never. Imperial Circus Dead Decadence…well, they’re still the best new(ish) band in the genre, but they mostly do their own thing in a completely different direction.
The Ravening might have a ridiculous name and a particular lack of electric blue/royal purple on its cover art, but it’s equally ridiculously good. It’s a well-oiled and meticulously executed whole, with every single piece utterly listenable on its own and better than the previous. Infinite replay value – and possibly inspired by Path of Exile.
And, most of all, it’s not a copy of the old greats. It’s not a y2(3)k version of In the Nightshade Eclipse or a veritable remastering of Mystic Places of Dawn (mind you, there already is one). It’s its own thing, and that says a lot in a genre where innovation is either hard to achieve or leads to the opposite direction of chaotic and often overdone avant-garde black metal.
The dramatic intro Hänen Salissaan Kastoimme Unenhoureet Vereen threw me off at first. It’s Dimmu Borgir to the D. But listen further and ye shall see thee light. Where orchestral dramatics are at the core of Dimmu Borgir, Argenthorns uses them more sparingly, yet smartly. The whole does not rely on them to make it good, it’s good on its own, and the synths and orchestration add to the punchy brilliance of this perfect skeleton.
Now, a couple of particular standout bits. In The Manor of the Demon Duke, there is a harpsichord interlude which leads perfectly into a wall of sound with oppressive synth undertones. The whole experience sounds like soundtrack to a wild and desperate ghoul chase down an endless winding stairwell. The following, In the Hoary Shadows of the Blighted Gardens, begins with the kind of cavernous vocals one would imagine hearing as their mind is being probed by Arioch himself. The sixth, Wings of Psychomachia reprises the harpsichord, with an almost Theatres des Vampires-esque flare leading up to an Evilfeast-ian grandeur. This is the one that really floored me. I’m speechless. Album of the year.
(10/10 The Flâneur)
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