New album, “We Are Him”, out on December 5th!
For a decade now, Darvaza have remained a steady, strident force in the black metal underground. The duo of multi-instrumentalist Omega and vocalist Wraath jointly possess underground experience that could fill pages, but the torch they carry together in Darvaza is a special one – born of strife, burning with defiance, its radiance illuminating and dread-inducing in equal measure. They began their journey with three weighty EPs in nearly lockstep succession, all before a self-imposed silence while they prepared their debut album. Released in 2022 by Terratur, Ascending Into Perdition was truly titled.
Now arrives Darvaza’s second full-length, also bearing an apt title: We are Him. Equal parts celebration, liberation, and immolation, We are Him is a fierce, finessed, and free-wheeling dedication to the adversarial might of the Devil, here molded with the clay of classicist black metal. Rough and robust but not without exceptionally tight execution, Darvaza attack with a confidence and dangerousness too often lacking in nowadays “black metal.” Signposts to the past, both theirs and their ancient forebears, are no doubt present; however, the duo’s songwriting – insistent yet patient, straightforward yet layered, catchy yet never mawkish – elevates We are Him to a level otherwise unattainable by only the most devout. For this REAL, really human, of the earth but striving for the Beyond: recorded in an actual studio rather than an actual bedroom, these dynamics that Darvaza create are sacred and suffused with spiritual import. Even when slowing the tempo to a Hammerhearted pulse, as on album highlight “Slaying Heaven,” the duo’s power is magnified a hundredfold, such is that import.
We sang into the darkness
And the void sang back
Darkness answers darkness
Darkness answers darkness!
For We are Him!
(Photograph by Necroshorns)
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