Ladies and gentlemen, it brings me the absolute honor to not only hear the best black metal album of 2022 but this is arguably speaking a serious top ten contender for one of my favorites of this entire year. Hulder is a one person black metal project from my neck in the woods in the Pacific Northwest and not only this miniature record is rich in detail, but the songwriting, lyrical content, and the indescribable feeling of being appreciative to solo artists like Hulder’s for example really shows how far the genre truly came to be.
Released on 20 Buck Spin, this five track, 26 minute album features traditional black metal signatures, classical infused arrangements and lyrics revolving fantasy, Belgian folkloric stories and medieval times is not only something I would be so sucked in heavily but after hearing this album front to back on multiple listens I am instantly in awe but how captivating, melodic and creative this triumphant record came to be really made me a fan right away. Marz Osborne is responsible for creating this project as she once again expanded her scopes to lay down a low-end depth and being as forceful to create such articulated, intelligent and building such wonderful resource to make her heritage loud and proud with every song represents emotion, aggressiveness, maturity and her ability to incorporate folk like instrumentals while keeping her traditional black metal formulated roots is really worth noting that Marz’s visionary into sharpen a dense of disparate influences does show she is at her greatest disposal.
I will say tracks like Burden Of Flesh And Bone and A Perilous Journey are filled with celestial atmospheric layers and provide such a mystifying and mysterious cinematically plaintive aura of melancholic soundscapes. This album can be haunting sometimes with Marz’s evolving mastery skills and creating a bottomless pit of new horizons within the capacity continously to improve her musical prodigies and The Eternal Fanfare is just the beginning of a new era for Marz Osborne’s project Hulder.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
