New album, “Diabolical Bloodlust”, out on April 4th!
FLAGG are one of Finnish black metal’s most unsung gems. Rotten and regal, the band is the work of two scene veterans: selfsame multi-instrumentalist Flagg, who was a part of reanimated old Finnish cult Annihilatus, and vocalist Tyrant, whose hordes include the esteemed likes of MALUM, Infernarium, and Kalmankantaja. Together, FLAGG’s two full-lengths – 2020’s Nothing But Death and 2021’s Cosmic Chaos Manifest, both released under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE – flew in the face of prevailing Finnish paradigms, presenting an ultraviolence largely steeped in the ancient ’90s whilst evincing a palatable sort of modernity.
Now, four years after that not-inconsiderable second album, FLAGG return with arguably their best record yet, Diabolical Bloodlust. Those pining for an authentic throwback to mid/late ’90s melodic black metal of a most blastbeaten nature will salivate at the prospect of this Diabolical Bloodlust. With a production style that’s palpably vintage – gleam and grime locking horns, harmonious in their hellish result – underpinning these eight firestorms of nightsky melodicism, FLAGG proceed to flay the listener with overwhelming-yet-entrancing intent, stacking fucking RIFFS upon RIFFS and coating them in the freezing fire of olde-worlde melody. No more but definitely no less, Diabolical Bloodlust sticks to its rigorous template with monomaniacal focus, stacking up well alongside such late ’90s touchstones as On Twilight Enthroned, Towards the Skullthrone of Satan, Lords of the Nightrealm, At the World of Untrodden Wonder, and Onwards to the Spectral Defile. Those who know, know, and FLAGG most definitely KNOW!
