Hellevaerder – Fakkeldragers

The music of Hellevaerder, hailing from Heerhugowaard, is more than sound — it’s myth made flesh. Their Black Metal is drenched in symbolism and driven by existential confrontation. At its center lies the saga of the Guardian of the Light, a spectral figure embodying humanity’s eternal conflict with being itself: the tension between hope and despair, between the fire of life and the lure of oblivion.

On the debut ‘In de Nevel van Afgunst’, the Guardian still stood defiant. She was resistance incarnate, unyielding before the Worshippers of the Void — entities that personify nihilism, surrender, and the dissolution of self. Their goal is silence, to dissolve into nothingness. Yet she fought back, a steadfast defender of the light, of the will to live.

But fate turns grim on the new album. The Guardian is overcome, chained, and forced through the gates of eternal bondage — a chilling metaphor for complete spiritual subjugation. In this realm of smothering blackness, hope is reduced to a faint ember. Still, even here, light tries to find passage through the cracks. Fragile though it may be, the spark survives. The duality remains.

Now the war is no longer a clash of armies, but an inner siege. Stripped of meaning, isolated, the Guardian still resists. She recalls her old conviction: “The light conquers all.” Yet she also whispers, “Dying means enlightenment.” That tension — between death as release and life as endurance — becomes the album’s heartbeat.

She is no superhero. She is us — the human who refuses to surrender, even when crushed beneath despair. Her battle is the storm within, where the edge between survival and annihilation is razor-thin. And ultimately, she remains loyal to existence. Scarred, but unbroken.
Thematically, the record circles a haunting question: What does it mean to cling to light when darkness is everywhere? When the void calls and the cosmos answers with silence, what keeps us tethered to life?

Enter Miranda Visser, the voice of Hellevaerder. Her vocals are merciless, flaying the air with anguish and rage. They don’t merely scream; they carve wounds. They linger. They scar. It’s a voice that brands itself onto memory.

From the opening assault of ‘Een Bepantserde Troon’, the band makes their intent clear: no ceremony, no gentle entry — just total conflagration. Riffs crash like siege engines, drums drag the listener downward into the Guardian’s torment. The second wave influence seeps through, but the sharpness of modern production ensures every strike lands with precision. The bass is given space, adding sinew and subtlety beneath the chaos.

‘Krijgers van het Niets’ raises the stakes. Another devastating riff opens the floodgates, and Visser unleashes pure wrath. Yet beneath the storm emerges a second voice — spectral, uncredited. The interplay feels like voices colliding within a mind, conjuring visions of ritual mania and fractured identity. Unsettling, brilliant.

The band then shifts tone with ‘De Laatste Dageraad’. Here, the pace softens, a mournful atmosphere replaces the blaze. Choral voices rise behind Visser, like a funeral procession for the Guardian’s fading hope. It is momentary respite — contemplation before the storm resumes.
The descent deepens with ‘Handen Geketend in ijzer’. The Guardian, shackled in chains, is pulled further into shadow. A hypnotic riff guides the listener downward, and an eerie spoken passage, distant and ghostlike, drifts through. It’s subtle but chilling — a masterclass in tension and atmosphere, showing the band’s melodic instincts beyond sheer ferocity.

The title track, ‘Fakkeldragers’, reshapes the soundscape entirely. Clean guitars, slow-burning doom textures, and deliberate pacing transform the atmosphere into something vast and mournful. It is not only a highlight — it’s a defining statement. Yet every track here holds its own weight, each carrying its own storm, climax, and revelation.

With ‘Fakkeldragers’, Hellevaerder prove themselves torchbearers in the truest sense. This is not mimicry or recycled tradition — it’s vision forged in fire, conceptually rich and emotionally devastating. A record that does not merely play Black Metal, but embodies it, breathes it, evolves it.

Hellevaerder doesn’t just ignite a flame. They march it into the void — unwavering, unafraid. And the rest of us would do well to follow their light.