ANAEL · From Arcane Fires | GOLDEN TAPE

Golden tape with 4 panel J-card, limited to 200 copies.

Background information about 'From Arcane Fires'

There is a particular kind of darkness that does not shout. It waits, it smoulders, and then it takes hold of you. Anael deal in exactly that sort of slow-burning menace on "From Arcane Fires", and the result is one of those records that keeps pulling you back long after the last note has faded. The guitars are ragged and ritualistic, the rhythms lurch and sway like a procession that has lost its way on purpose, and over the top of it all sits a vocal performance that feels less sung than summoned. This is black metal with dirt under its fingernails and a genuine sense of theatre in its bones.

What makes the album stick, though, is the songwriting. Tracks like "She Is Ever A Moon" and "Down Winding Stairs" understand that atmosphere is not the same thing as formlessness — there are real hooks buried in the murk, real dynamics shifting under the surface, and a willingness to let a passage breathe before setting it alight. "Blood & Honey" and "Song Of The Moth" trade blows between grim, driving passages and moments of strange, almost mournful beauty. It is the sound of a band who clearly love this music deeply and are not content to simply repeat what came before them.

For fans of: Watain, Dissection, Necrophobic, Sargeist, Vinterland

Track listing

A1. Devil's Tongues
A2. She Is Ever A Moon
A3. Down Winding Stairs
B1. Blood & Honey
B2. Song Of The Moth
B3. All Souls' Night
B4. Muspilli

Manufacturer: Darkness Shall Rise Productions, Lengenfelder Straße 58, 08107 Kirchberg, Germany, Contact: darknessshallrise.de