VARGRAV

Finland’s VARGRAV set release date for new WEREWOLF album – features MOONSORROW members

Today, Werewolf Records announces December 15th as the international release date for the highly anticipated third album of Finland’s Vargrav, The Nighthold, on CD and cassette tape formats. The vinyl LP version will follow next year.

From the dawn of the classic debut album, Netherstorm, in 2018, Finland’s Vargrav have almost single-handedly reinvigorated the oft-maligned symphonic black metal subgenre. Forged in fires from the ancients – founder V-Khaoz’s credentials are vast and stretch back decades – and stoking the embers last left by Obtained Enslavement and Norway’s Covenant and Odium, Vargrav‘s two albums to date stand as proud pillars of shimmering, classics-based obsidian.

As momentous as those two full-lengths have been, Vargrav arguably eclipse both with their third album, The Nighthold. With a lineup that now includes the notorious Graf Werwolf von Armageddon on vocals and Moonsorrow members Trollhorn of the Black Harvest on guitars/bass and Baron M. Tarwonen on drums, Vargrav‘s swirling, cosmic surge has never been more potent; their attack is both sharper and dreamier, crystal-clear and opaque simultaneously. That added clarity creates more immediacy as The Nighthold kicks in, for the aggression of old is kicked into overdrive here and the synths take on a truly orchestral aspect. It’s not for nothing that the album is a full hour in length: everything here sounds (and feels) HUGE, one massive velvety purple landscape of stained-glass visions as far as the third eye can see. And all 12 tracks are threaded together in a plausibly cinematic manner; while each is mighty in its own respective right, Vargrav sequence every song with artistic flair and high drama, concluding the immersive experience with a daresay-soulful guitar solo during the coda of “Creator of the True Real” that then segues into the nearly-10-minute big-screen instrumental “Ghostlands.” What film or filmic realm one enters into (or leaves) is entirely up to the listener…The Nighthold is boundless!

It is thus not unjust to liken this achievement to Covenant’s classic Nexus Polaris. The second era of Vargrav has hereby begun with The Nighthold!

In the meantime, hear the recently revealed track “Chalice of Silver and Blood” here:

Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Vargrav (Finland)’s The Nighthold

1. Moonless Abyss of the Nighthold
2. Through the Woods of Breathing Shadows
3. Chalice of Silver and Blood
4. Thy Imperial Malice
5. Curse of the Plaguewood Lake
6. Encircle the Spectral Dimension
7. Triumph of the Nightbringer
8. Into the Shadow Crypts
9. The One Who Lurks Beyond the Starscape
10. A Dark Consecration
11. Creator of the True Real
12. Ghostlands


MORE INFO:
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EMBRYONIC SLUMBER set release date for WEREWOLF debut, reveal first tracks – features members of VARGRAV, SARGEIST, DRUADAN FOREST, DESOLATE SHRINE+++

Hailing from Finland, while Embryonic Slumber may be a brand-new entity in name, the duo are longtime veterans of the underground: Vargrav / Druadan Forest mainman V-Khaoz and Hellwind Inferion, an incredibly prolific drummer but more recently known as the vocalist for both Sargeist and Desolate Shrine. And while what they create together as Embryonic Slumber may show slight shades of their collective pasts, the resulting recording – the full-length In Worship Our Blood is Buried, the band’s bolt-from-the-blue debut – handily transcends comparisons altogether.

On evidence of this fully-formed first creation, Embryonic Slumber are indeed aptly monikered. Theirs is a dense-yet-sumptuous swell of sound, “cosmic black metal” in form and content, but finessed and nuanced to such a sterling degree that this debut album safely evades the cliches endemic to this idiom. Indeed, In Worship Our Blood is Buried moves like a long-obscured fog ominously emerging from a spectral void both above and below. Its soundwalls may feel like purple velvet, but the sheer enormity of their paradoxically spacious swell feel suffocating and liberating simultaneously. Likewise, the moments of placid quietude bespeak a simmering tension bound to burst at any given moment…or build ever high, slowly yet inexorably, toward the very cosmos itself. At the end just as at the very beginning, all one can do is submit to In Worship Our Blood is Buried and allow Embryonic Slumber to be your stargazing guide.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new tracks “I am the Storm” here:

and “Mortify Your Servant” here:

Preorder info for the CD version can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Embryonic Slumber’s In Worship Our Blood is Buried
1. Intro – Blood, Dust and Twelve Thrones [3:21]
2. Unwavering Flame [10:41]
3. Seven Streams of Sidonay [3:34]
4. Mortify Your Servant [9:42]
5. An Oath of Devotion [11:25]
6. I Am The Storm (bonus track) [4:49]

MORE INFO:
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VARGRAV set release date for new WEREWOLF album, reveal first tracks

Today, Werewolf Records, in conspiracy with Hells Headbangers, sets April 26th as the international release date for Vargrav‘s highly anticipated second album, Reign in Supreme Darkness, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Hailing from Finland, the root of Vargrav originated during starless nights in late 2015. Working in clandestine solitude, sole creator V-Khaoz – a prolific veteran of the Finnish black metal underground, dating back to the late ’90s – soon shaped the initial vision of Vargrav‘s debut album and submitted it, in demo form, to various labels. During the the summer of 2016, Werewolf Records was immediately chosen to be the most suitable collaborator with which to work, and the sinister glow of the black flame began to burn brighter…

Alas, at the dawn of 2018 came Vargrav‘s debut album, Netherstorm, and it indeed took the underground by storm, garnering rave reviews across the world. Not surprising, this, as the album offered a boundlessly fresh perspective by honoring the ancient past: specifically, the oft-unjustly-derided “symphonic black metal” subgenre, which back in simpler, more idealistic times was simply BLACK METAL. No matter what appellation you put it, Netherstorm radiated a spellbinding magick that was impossible to deny. The past was alive, with Vargrav lighting the way…

And now, V-Khaoz returns to quickly eclipse that feat with Vargrav‘s second album, Reign in Supreme Darkness. Ever aptly titled, Reign in Supreme Darkness is essentially an intensification and consolidation of Netherstorm‘s most enduring traits, expanding the band’s lexicon by basically speaking it more boldly than before. Still a swarming, densely layered maelstrom of medieval majesty and moonlit madness, here Vargrav heightens the drama that’s latently laid at the band’s core, focusing the attack into more finessed form, and stripping away some of its predecessor’s more blizzard-blown excesses. In their stead arrives a more dynamic approach to songwriting, varying tempos while maximizing movement, and an overall more mournful and mysterious aspect to the prominent layers of synth.

Just as timeless as Netherstorm, if not more so, Vargrav once again evokes the visionary works of old Obtained Enslavement, Dimmu Borgir, Abigor, Limbonic Art, and especially early Emperor. And once again, another classic of symphonic black metal graces the purple-velvet landscape of our imagination, and it bears the justifiably arrogant title of Reign in Supreme Darkness.

Werewolf Records is a Luciferian metal temple founded in 1998. The wolfish cry from the Carelian battlegrounds, Werewolf Records releases black metal and other dark arts motivated exclusively by theistic Satanist views of the founder Werwolf. In this age when black metal’s worth is questionable, idealism and rigor are the exception when they should be the highest law. We uphold the law of the Wolf – the destruction of the weak and the false so that the original vitality of the dark magic art can continue to grow and create the foundations for an empire. Black metal is Will and Power. We deal with material that inspires us on our journey towards our own kingdom – a kingdom that is not yours, but bears a resemblance to the one there could be for you. Now in conspiracy with Hells Headbangers, the temple of Werewolf Records shall wage its war farther and wider than ever, with no spiritual surrender.

In the meantime, hear the new Vargrav tracks “In Streams From Great Mysteries” HERE and “As the Shadows Grow Silent” here:
Preorder info for Reign in Supreme Darkness can be found HERE at Werewolf Records‘ Bandcamp.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Vargrav (Finland)’s Reign in Supreme Darkness
1. Intro – Et In Profundis Mysteriis
2. The Glory of Eternal Night
3. Dark Space Dominion
4. In Streams From Great Mysteries
5. As the Shadows Grow Silent
6. Crowned By Demonstorms
7. Godless Pandemonium
8. Arcane Stargazer

MORE INFO:
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www.hellsheadbangers.com
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VARGRAV set release date for WEREWOLF debut, reveal first track

Werewolf Records, in conspiracy with Hells Headbangers, sets January 26th, 2018 as the international release for Vargrav’s highly anticipated debut album, Netherstorm. The album shall be released on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Hailing from Finland, the band originated during starless nights in late 2015. As the vision calmly evolved and the cloak of obscurity relinquished, Vargrav was chosen to be illuminating sign for this act of black arts. During the formative years, the music also transmitted into a profound abyss, only to reincarnate as a sinister glow of the black flame. A demo version of the album was then unleashed during the summer of 2016, and after numerous contacts from different labels, Werewolf Records was immediately chosen to be the most suitable collaborator with which to work.

That album, now bearing the ominous and apt title of Netherstorm, is a blizzard-blown blast from the ancient past. “Symphonic black metal” may be a dirty word to some still, but back in simpler, more idealistic times, that appellation bore delicious fruit, and many long-cherished classics of the black metal canon have upheld that banner; more specifically, once upon a time, it was simply BLACK METAL. Vargrav bear witness to this fact, and create a swarming, densely layered maelstrom of medieval majesty and moonlit madness. Tangibly physical without sacrificing the finer nuances of synth layering, Netherstorm sweeps grandly across a cobwebbed landscape, distant ruins becoming the very listener’s landscape. It’s truly timeless magick, evoking the visionary works of old Obtained Enslavement, Dimmu Borgir, Abigor, Limbonic Art, and especially early Emperor, whose “Ancient Queen” is covered on the bonus 7″ which comes with the vinyl LP pressing of Netherstorm. The overture of a black-hearted storm has been sung and what has yet left uncovered shall be conquered…

Werewolf Records is a Luciferian metal temple founded in 1998. The wolfish cry from the Carelian battlegrounds, Werewolf Records releases black metal and other dark arts motivated exclusively by theistic Satanist views of the founder Werwolf. In this age when black metal’s worth is questionable, idealism and rigor are the exception when they should be the highest law. We uphold the law of the Wolf – the destruction of the weak and the false so that the original vitality of the dark magic art can continue to grow and create the foundations for an empire. Black metal is Will and Power. We deal with material that inspires us on our journey towards our own kingdom – a kingdom that is not yours, but bears a resemblance to the one there could be for you. Now in conspiracy with Hells Headbangers, the temple of Werewolf Records shall wage its war farther and wider than ever, with no spiritual surrender.

In the meantime, hear the new track “Shadowed Secrets Unmasked”

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Vargrav (Finland)’s Netherstorm
1. Netherstorm
2. Shadowed Secrets Unmasked
3. Limbo of Abysmal Void
4. Ethereal Visions of a Monumental Cataclysm
5. Obidient Intolerant Ensnared
6. Outro
7. The Glory Of Eternal Night (bonus)
8. Ancient Queen (bonus – Emperor cover)

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