Australia’s Drowning The Light are one of most darkest, creative, imaginative and unforgettable black metal bands I stumbled across after becoming a fan several years ago to witness 2015’s Dark Adversary Productions of From The Abyss which still stands this very day one of the most well crafted and ambitious albums I’ve heard in recent memory. Two years later, Azgorh resurrected himself from the coldest, lurky abyss to create the latest chapter of Drowning The Light’s catalog with the newest album titled Varcolaci Rising. With lyricism consists of Satanism, vampyrism, depression, occultism, and the ancient ones, these two piece outfit has created one hell of a extensive library of music showcasing maturity, natural progression and musicianship has never sounded tighter compared to past releases. Varcolaci Rising is best described as astronomical black metal while borrowing medieval storytelling narrations that sounds completely different and unique.
Azgorh’s compositions, musical professions, artistic expressions and observations to create black metal music is a wonderful branch of excitement as the songs each represent a permanent historic that reminds me very much of early Summoning, Satyricon and Nazgûl. Production here is filled with rawness unlike Drowning The Light has ever done in the long-running career this outfit has contributed to the Australian black metal scene. Let’s take the songs such as Blood Covered Moon of Varcolaci, Cursed in the Name of the Oldest Vampyres, Awaken… Most Ancient Ones and Drinking Lunar Spells, I cannot fully express myself how wonderfully arranged these tracks are presented here provide powerful elements of some depressive suicidal black metal traces but also combining atmosphere giving the album a much more folky twist. Everything from the furious black metal melodies, epic musical paths of intelligent songwriting and soundscapes incredibly catchy to listen, Varcolaci Rising marked a new phase into the band’s rightful career as they’ve once again proved themselves that a two piece band can create such ancestral and even charismatic auras making Varcolaci Rising one of the most crafted albums in their catalog.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
