WINTERFYLLETH

The black metal spectrum is a curious thing. It stretches from the lobotomized shrieking of the primitive nihilist to the cerebral proselyting of the mercurial intellectual, covering all points of intrigue and ignominy in between. Both extremes have their value, of course, but when it comes to making records that will stay with you forever, WINTERFYLLETH's status as noble guardians of black metal as a refined and rapacious art form sets them apart from everyone else, irrespective of intent or execution. "The Unyielding Season" is the latest in the series of albums that have breathed vitality and audacity into European black metal's often restrictive blood flow. Reaching one of several career peaks with 2024's "The Imperious Horizon", WINTERFYLLETH are once again defining their own musical reality with the passion and persistence of inveterate, righteous rebels.

You will hear the essence of what makes this band special in the opening "Heroes of a Hundred Fields". Epic and grandiose in true post-BATHORY fashion, it is another instant highlight in the band's catalogue, with all the viciousness and virulence that extreme metal demands, but delivered with such expansive, soulful flair that comparisons with other bands, contemporary or otherwise, simply fizzle out and fade away. WINTERFYLLETH have long since mastered their own fiery, fluid style of black metal, and they continue to find new ways to force their emotional depths and retaliatory fury under our skin and into our willingly bewildered minds. As unstoppable as a runaway steamroller, but opalescent and swollen with otherworldly beauty, their windswept gait and stately humility elevate the band far beyond the blackened average. At this point, we should expect nothing less, but it is still hugely impressive and laudable that any modern band can sound this definitive or this overwhelming. Displaying a knack for insidious melody and elegant bombast that puts most of their peers to shame, WINTERFYLLETH are constructing monuments to past, present and future, weaving unbreakable threads from the hazy vistas of history to the monolithic challenges of today, all while making every note sound like a graceful yet barbarous cry for humanity and persistence. "Hold brethren dear now, close to hand / For victory's day is only young!" roars frontman Chris Naughton, and the fires of rebellion flicker more brightly and with greater intensity in the listener's mind's eye. On a more basic level, this is music that exhilarates and enlightens, as the band's trademark wall of guitars consumes all in its path.

Devoted fans of this band will not be surprised that the rest of "The Unyielding Season" sustains the power, glory and poetic precision of its opening track. Both "Echoes In The After" and "A Hollow Existence" scorch the earth with a remorseless avalanche of great riffs and spellbinding melody. "Perdition's Flame" is a coruscating, pagan metal punch to the gut, as the ghostly specter of some forest-razing inferno casts its incendiary spell across a heathen landscape. The title track is more measured and melancholier, with a somnambulant gait that drifts with eerie purpose, and an underlying sense of ageless dignity that thrives amid delicate, downbeat interludes and sudden eruptions of scornful aggression and stately vastness. Not for the first time, WINTERFYLLETH are conjuring music that surrounds the listener like a spiritual shield, while still exuding the kind of grim fortitude that so often defines the best black metal.

After the elegiac sidestep of "Unspoken Elegy", which harks back to the acoustic enchantment of 2018's "The Hallowing of Heirdom", WINTERFYLLETH embark on a remarkable two-song descent into exquisite madness. "In Ashen Wake" and "Towards Elysium" are both devastating. The former begins as a cinematic syrup of synths, before the band's artful barrage of distortion sweeps cynicism and despair away, replacing it with an enveloping warmth of humanity and outrageously insistent, melodic motifs that spiral towards the dawn like hope made manifest. The latter may be the finest song here: "Towards Elysium" is a fantastic piece of songwriting, with Naughton's increasingly grand and poetic lyrics dragging everything forward like the fearless battle cry of a marauding, underdog army. Tangentially saluting the arcane traditions of EMPEROR, it's an absurdly potent, cathartic rush of sound, and one of the most profoundly moving pieces of music that its creators have ever conceived. It is also a brilliantly stirring blast of heavy fucking metal, with inspirational lyrics to match: "So let us all prepare / For the coming of that day / And let us live out life / That we may be worthy". Sensational stuff, in every way.

As an added, life-affirming bonus, WINTERFYLLETH conclude their ninth album with a cover of PARADISE LOST's "Enchantment", which gleefully expands the original's gloomy charisma, drawing even more exquisite sorrow from its lethal, melodic austerity. A beautiful tribute to another UK band with a fiercely original formula, it is an utterly classy period point at the end of another unequivocal triumph. What a fucking band they are.