There are some bands where you hear the first few seconds of a new record and immediately know who you are dealing with. Azaghal are one of them. Coming out of Finland in the early 1990s and still carrying that unmistakable Finnish Black Metal darkness more than three decades later, the band have built a long catalogue without ever losing that cold and vicious character that made their name known in the first place. ‘Nekrohelios’ is their thirteenth full-length and another chapter in a story that has stretched across several generations of the underground.
The album wastes little time getting down to business. After the short title intro, the guitars come charging in with plenty of bite, backed by furious drumming and Thirteen’s harsh vocals. What caught my attention is how much movement there is in the guitar work. The faster sections hit with real force, but Azaghal are not afraid to slow things down and let the riffs breathe before launching back into the attack. There is melody running through the record as well, but it never feels pasted on for effect. It is part of the band’s language.
Narqath handles guitars, bass, keyboards and clean vocals, with Lima behind the drums and Thirteen on vocals, while JL Nokturnal contributes lead guitar. That combination gives ‘Nekrohelios’ a wider sound than the raw Finnish Black Metal recordings of the early days, but the aggression remains firmly intact. The production is clear enough to pick out the individual instruments while still retaining enough roughness to stop the album from sounding sterile.
For me, the strongest part of ‘Nekrohelios’ is the guitar work. There is plenty of speed and aggression, but underneath it are those darker melodic passages that give the album its Finnish identity. Some riffs have that feeling of being almost majestic before the band suddenly tear them apart with another burst of speed. The keyboards are used sparingly enough that they add atmosphere without taking over the music, and the cleaner vocal moments provide an interesting contrast to Thirteen’s rasp.
Azaghal have been around long enough to have witnessed just about every change that has taken place within Black Metal, from the primitive underground recordings of the 1990s to the vastly different production standards we have today. ‘Nekrohelios’ does not need to pretend that it was recorded in some forgotten Finnish rehearsal room in 1993. It sounds like a 2026 Azaghal record, but the spirit behind the music still comes from that older world.
What I hear here is a band still capable of writing riffs that have teeth. ‘Nekrohelios’ is aggressive without becoming exhausting, melodic without becoming soft and dark without relying on the usual atmospheric clichés. There is a real sense of fire running through the record, particularly when the guitars lock into those faster passages and the drums start hammering away underneath them.
After more than thirty years, Azaghal still have something to say through their instruments. ‘Nekrohelios’ is not trying to convince anyone that Black Metal needs to be reinvented. It simply delivers its own brand of Finnish darkness with enough conviction, melody and aggression to make this another album worth spending time with.
Listen to this Saatana Perrrkele!!!!
