If I was a Bond villain looking to hold the world to ransom by destabilising the Black Metal community (unlikely but stay with me here), my nefarious plot would involve removing the letter “v” from all keyboards being manufactured. Imagine the consternation and beating of breasts that would occur if corpse painted folks could no longer replace “f”s or “u”s with that pointy toothsome letter! Maybe they could move to something more cuddly like an upper case Q. So KQlt and TrQe. I digress!

My attempts at wit aside, Ov Shadows are a Black Metal band from Gothenburg who favour the full on bombast and blast of bands like 1349 and fellow Swedes Dark Funeral.  “I Djavulens Avilbild” is their second full length following 2018’s “The Darkness Between Stars”.

This, the band’s first release on Hypnotic Dirge, is full of stirring icy riffs with a really full sound. The first three tracks on the album allow no time to strap in before they catapult into a maelstrom of darkness. “Blasphemiskt Crescendo” had me reaching for the sky with the unholy metal claw whilst my neck whipped to the oh so beefy drum sound. The guitars here pinch and scream like tortured violins. Delightfully devillish!

It is refreshing that Ov Shadows are a quartet having reviewed a lot of one-man bands and duos who lurk in the darkness of late. The four, sound like a band and the drums offer a warm organic feel amongst the razor-sharp guitars and blistering basslines.

The title track is a more pensive composition than the others carried by a driving drum beat that gives the track a nautical Viking air.

As I listen to the album more – been spinning it for a week or so, I have started to draw comparisons to Immortal’s Northern Chaos Gods and it is starting to grow on me more and more. It is one of those albums that has a musical theme running through it but offering enough diversity to keep the interest and ensure that the tracks do not blur into one. This is definitely an album for folks who enjoy a good drum sound – I just wish my air drums were better!

Ov Shadows have produced an aggressively melodic, devilishly driving collection of blackened brutality. I for one am a new convert.

(8/10 Matt Mason)  

https://www.facebook.com/ovshadowsofficial

https://hypnoticdirgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/i-dj-vulens-avbild