When you utter the words “Finnish black metal” the word “lush” is probably not the first thing that comes to mind, not to discount the distinct melodicism that bands such as Satanic Warmaster and Horna possess, with riffs that are laden with emotion and power, however, If I had to call a Finnish black metal band “lush”, I would give that title to Mooncitadel, especially upon this release, which was pressed by Out of the Dungeon on Compact Disk (CD) July of this year.
The album art, not bearing any “Kvlt” logos or even text for that matter, presents a spire upon an astral sphere with something clearly flying above out of view, a clearly imposing structure which has an odd beauty to it, which leads us to the first track “Ordo Templi Borealis”, serving almost as a prologue as sorts to a larger overarching story naturally. While Mooncitadel is a black metal band true, they are not a black metal band that is opposed to experimenting with other genres such as Dungeon Synth/Electronic music, or even folk which this first track has elements all of, opening with for lack of a better term, really pretty acoustic guitar and synths which sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album, occasionally utilizing spoken word from the voice of a Wizard like character, something straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign before heading into the second track “Procreation of the Comet Rider”, starting right where track 1 leaves off with the acoustic guitar strumming in and introducing the distorted black metal guitars to begin this next track, which are produced to utmost perfection in contrast to the rest of the instruments, being distorted enough to bite deeply, lacking thinness, but not sound out of place or strange in comparison to everything else. If track 1 was a prologue, Track 2 is the entire battle saga, with the music at any given point rising and falling with its lush epic melodies and variety in not just the riffing, but the drums which are played impressively for a release like this, knowing when to go into a full war like blast and when to hold back to let the music breathe and consume you in its splendor.
To add, the vocals of Stormheit on the black metal tracks of this release are absolutely perfect, being a sharp black metal scream that has a “Yell” like tone to it which when added with Reverb and the rest of the epic instrumentation, make the formula of “Procreation of the Comet Rider” a complete package. Track 3 “Assemble Thy Constellations, Lord of Silence!” Is another ambient track about 10 minutes in length and while its not the final track on the album itself, it has a very much “Epilogue” type of feel with the subdued, 80s like synths and would fit this mold in any other release but here, instead it is the beginning of the end pre-facing the ending black metal epic title track, but to continue on this one,while it is quite long, I appreciate the varied synth and drum work throughout the song to keep it from feeling like a chore or boring. Finally the last track “Stardawn Usurper”, I can say about all the same things I have said for “Procreation of the Comet Rider” but this track in particular has a much more uplifting feeling, rising from a bloodied ground in a long battle only to slay the villain by will alone in the end, raising the sword in Triumph in the ashes of every fallen foe, ending out the album in an extremely glorious note.
Overall Stardawn Usurper for me, is probably my album of the year at this point, it came out extremely unexpectedly and suddenly, and still managed to hold a candle to all of his other (also amazing) releases both in Mooncitadel but Stormheit as well, I highly recommend you pick this one up and lose yourself in it…
Score: 9.3/10
For fans of Symphonic/Epic Black Metal with elements of Dungeon Synth and Folk.
– Written By ❄️ Mark ❄️(IG: @bleakdarkwhimsy)