HULDER · Verbolgen | BLACK RED LP

Black/red sunburst vinyl in gatefold sleeve with 4-page insert and 60cm x 90cm poster. Limited to 250 copies worldwide.

Background information about 'Verbolgen'

Hulder have always felt like a project on the verge of something enormous, and Verbolgen is the moment that promise finally lands with both feet. This is the record where Necreon steps out of the shadows and into true co-leadership, and you can hear the difference in every passing second. The songwriting has thickened, grown more ambitious, reaching for a wider instrumental palette that pushes far beyond the usual black metal toolkit.

Across nine tracks, Verbolgen moves between sheer severity and a strange, wintry beauty that has always been Hulder's signature. The hurdy gurdy and extra keys from Keld lend certain passages an almost processional weight, while Ianuaria's session flute drifts through the mix like smoke over still water. Two drummers, Vapula and Vrolok, split the record between them, and the result is a rhythm section that actually breathes with the album's shifting moods. Ahti Kortelainen's mix at Tico Tico Studio gives everything an earthy, resonant quality perfectly suited to themes of blood, soil, and old debts finally settled. Three of the songs are sung in Flemish, adding an incantatory, almost ritual dimension that sets this apart from anything in the band's back catalogue. The cover art, painted by Morrigan, is her first work for a metal band in nearly three decades, and it signals a new chapter as clearly as the music does.

For fans of:
Bathory, Dissection, Moonsorrow

Other Versions

DIGIPAK CD · 15,99 € BLACK LP · 26,99 € BLACK/WHITE SPLATTER LP · Sold out BLACK TAPE · 15,99 €

Track listing

A1. Drie Raven (Intro)
A2. The Crowning
A3. Thy Binding Oath
A4. Verbolgen
A5. ...And We Shall Sing
B1. In Blood and in Earth
B2. Den Nacht Zijn Lied
B3. View From Nemeton
B4. The Glow of Dawn

Manufacturer: Sasu Soundworks Sarl, 126 Boulevard Bara, Heliopolis 2, Lot B4, 13013 Marseille, France, Contact: www.season-of-mist.com