Welkin, hailing from Singapore, brings us their latest battle hymn, Emblems of Valour. This album is in dedication to the legendary three brothers Liu, Guan, Zhang. Welkin is able to capture their valour, courage, and virtuous actions through their epic sounding black metal. Coming off the back of their previous album Recollections of Conquest and Honour, they step back from the Portuguese influence on the Singaporean lands and take a look at a more ancient source of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, bringing a much stronger sense of pride and honour in their sound.
As with every ancient story, the sounds of war and blades clashing greet you at the start of this album, as it explodes into a cacophony atmospheric riffs, capturing the tragedy, chaos, and honour that comes with war, as well as harsh and vitriolic vocals and militant drumming keeping it all coherent in a heavy melodic fashion. While it’s not at all prominent in the album, there are some added synths to add onto the epic sounds that the album builds and adds more emphasis to the guitars especially on the third track 208 Battle of Red Cliffs. This track in particular really captures the epic legend that these three brothers took part in and hearing this beautiful ancient story translated in a thrashing black metal album is incredibly charming to listen to and got me hooked from the first guitar solo.
There are some influences from other bands, particularly from the neighboring warriors of Schtarch of Holyarrow lending his powerful vocals on a few tracks. While Welkin is musically very different from Holyarrow, their epic folk influence is undeniable on this album, especially given the theme. as with their previous album Recollections of Conquest and Honour, it’s a bit more subdued, not as prideful but much more melancholic and still holds similarly powerful riffs. They’ve really progressed and grew more into themselves with Emblems of Valour, finding their footing and their place within the Eastern underground scene and carving their own niche.
I personally see Welkin doing nothing but growing from this point onwards if they stay on their path. I’ve found very little drawbacks with this album, as the song writing, production, instrumentation, all of it is simply well produced and put together, and a clear sense of vision and care went into the creation of this release. In all honesty, I’ve forgotten about this and from their Recollections of Conquest album, while it was good it didn’t stand out from all of the other atmospheric black metal bands that sprout out from no where. But now they’re really onto something and I’d highly recommend giving this album a full listen as well as giving their older works a spin as well.