Vampyreign – Throne of Sanguine Eclipse [EP]

Here we go again to dive as much as possible into the bowels of this EP and I want to take the time to bring out some details that are important or at least for me they are.

Vampyreign is a fairly underground one man band of North American Black Metal, it is the creation of Ravnblod who like every multi-instrumentalist in solitude seeks to express and evoke the dark direction and will of his music. Now, above I said that the one man band belongs to the deepest underground. And how are there any doubts about this if the only physical edition that exists of this work is on tape imitated to only 30 damn copies released in the shadows by the Red River Family label who are in charge of editing Black Metal bands for inhabitants of these black sounds of the underground. Some will say: “But why only 30 damn copies? do they forget that in the old times of tape trading everything was different?”. 30 Copies tell me that the intention is to reach those they want to reach, no more and no less, taking into account that Vampyreign is a project, the quantity is not imperatively necessary and more than a whim this is a confirmation of the underlying ideology!

Living up to its name, ‘Cacophony of the Damned Souls’ is an attack of possessed voices intoning deep litanies, Raw Black Metal in a hypnotic state. Each instrument moves proudly but the black secrecy bleeds in the guitars and the gloomy keyboards that in some passages mix with sounds of ecclesiastical organs, blackening and giving introspective depth to the ether of the recording.

I think ‘Throne of Sanguine Eclipse’ could pass for a forgotten work by the Norwegian Nidrosian Black Cult due to its omnipresent dissonances, atmosphere, reverberant dimensioned screams and spectral chants, with recommended tracks like ‘Whispers in the Void of Sin’ and ‘Cacophony of the Damned Souls’. The drum variations that are tied to the sense dictated by the creator’s will and occult ideology, and the malevolent sound that gives that sensation of negativity and abysmal descent without reaching the monumental apotheosis of the Norwegians of the black circle but creating its own identity and march among the shadows.