Hailing from the mystical lands of Iberia, Catalonian black metal act Calderum presents us with their second full length offering. Taking inspiration from the black metal warriors of the second-wave, this release is steeped in a classic sound, combining medieval style dungeon synth with raw hard hitting black metal creates a timeless sound. Heavy riffs and plenty of synths, this album strikes a great balance between the two, where Lord Mortuorum’s great song writing comes into play. Dark fantasy atmosphere and plenty of old-school attitude, this album sounds straight from the past.
With such a raw beginning to this album, you know right away what you’re getting yourself into. A dark black metal journey reminiscent of early Emperor or Immortal with the combination of synth and guitars balanced in a way where one doesn’t overly rely on another and meld in a really great way that transports you to dark and mysterious wizard towers of old. With the album just being over 39 and a half minutes, its able to really immerse you in its atmosphere in a way that makes you feel like its much longer.
This album is about as black metal as black metal can get. There isn’t much to complain about really, it hits all the notes perfect and presented in a way that’s admittedly been done before but none the less charming. I personally found this album to be a blast, getting lost in its dungeon synth tracks in particular. They stood out the most to me and I found them to be my favorite part of the album. They remind me of late nights playing old school RPGs crawling through dungeons in front of a dimly lit screen. Its presented in this album well and combines perfectly with the black metal tracks at hand.
If you’re not already interested just by the cover its self, I’m not sure there’s much I can do to convince you to listen to it. Its an old-school classic with a timeless sound that’s easy to get into and a great immersive black metal romp. Worth checking out.