Debut album, “Godslaying Arcane Panoply”, out on November 20th!
One of the most electric newcomers WEREWOLF has heard in years, VULKAN GRIT delivered the Demonstorms demo in 2023. Brimming with that electricity, it only hinted at the full mastery yet to be unveiled.
At last here, VULKAN GRIT’s debut album bears an appropriate title: Godslaying Arcane Panoply. Despite hailing from Finland, the young quartet eschew much of their scene’s reigning paradigms of the last 25 years – be them freezing fire, strength & honor, or resurgent bestiality – for something squarely, authentically mid ’90s. To invoke such names as early Nifelheim, Enthroned, NÃ¥strond, Marduk, and Germany’s Desaster is not meant to suggest lazy plagiarism or rote replication; rather, this is the noble framework from which VULKAN GRIT explode with their own epics of arcane black metal magick. Adding to that lineage, Godslaying Arcane Panoply ripples forth with a berserker intensity wound up with a razor-wire melodicism – indeed, riffing that continues to attack, attack, ATTACK and with memorability to boot. That these Finns feel like they’re caught in the throes of possession underlines the archaic splendor at the heart of this particular subgenre: certainly simple to attempt, but exceedingly difficult to master. What’s more, the subtle hints of death metal, doom, and even classic heavy metal don’t detract from their vintage black metal core and color their songwriting with even deeper shades of obsidian. And the album’s echoing-across-a-cathedral production only heightens this strident songwriting, a wise choice of form meeting content.
Music from the elders, delivered by the youth of today: this is VULKAN GRIT’s Godslaying Arcane Panoply!
