Warloghe – Logos of All-that-ends

Despite its release in 2021, the preceding Warloghe album ‘Three Angled Void’ was originally written between 2003 and 2007. Much closer to the recordings of the band’s first two albums ‘The First Possession’ and ‘Womb of Pestilence’, that saw its original releases in 1999 and 2003 respectively. Whether ‘Logos of All-That-Ends’ similarly dates from decades ago is unknown to me, but there’s no denying the fact that Eorl Torht Tyrannus has returned just a few years after ‘Three Angled Void’ with the fourth Warloghe full-length to date.

Fact is also that ‘Logos of All-That-Ends’ picks up where its predecessor left us. Warloghe has always drawn inspiration from the raw Black Metal of the French scene of the 90’s and has gradually grown into a more disturbing and bleaker direction with every release, to the point where there are very few bands that sound like them. On the latest album this evolution manifests in a few subtle ways, with slightly more of those slowly crawling passages where the unnerving atonality of the riffs is pushed even more in your face. Within this raw, uncomfortably sliding and shifting nature of the guitar tones lies a degree of familiarity, catchiness if you will, that makes these riffs stand out and stick with you. On ‘Logos of All-That-Ends’ this feels even more confronting, in part because the guitar layers seem more opposing, but also because there are more tempo changes. With the already gnarly nature of the riffs, this adds a further sense of restlessness to the Warloghe formula.

Tracks like ‘Thousandth Dream‘ and ‘Upon The Rotting Threshold’ are exactly what you would file under typical Warloghe. The shifting and sliding riffs, intense croaking throat of Eorl Torht Tyrannus and the more dynamic drums (courtesy of session member Arkkon Vulpekul) combine into an utterly desperate whole. But both songs also introduce some new elements, mostly featured as sections with a slightly more open atmosphere. Similarly, the beginning of a song like ‘Grave Sentience’ is what you would expect if you heard ‘The First Possession’, ‘Womb of Pestilence’ or ‘Three Angled Void’ before: fast, dark, highly atonal. Yet when it slows to a slugging pace, it doesn’t lose that eeriness even as it reveals a melodic riff buried underneath the dark shifting mass. The song then changes again as the riffs start to slide, slipping back into that skincrawlingl catchy main passage. But Eorl Torht Tyrannus has a final surprise in store for us, as the song takes an almost bittersweet turn towards the end. As contradicting as it sounds, by adding a few of these more open, almost melodic sections, it makes the music even more bleak. As all that is beautiful, is inevitably and swiftly torn apart by that swallowing mass of remorseless atonality.

In a Finnish Black Metal scene known for it’s high degree of melancholy and darkness, Warloghe remains the undisputed kings of the bleak. There are very few bands alike, and the latest record continues to enforce that status. ‘Logos of All-That-Ends’ takes all that came before it and continues to find new ways to make the music of Warloghe even more unnerving. Those that collect CDs can already find the record on physical format, but if you, like me, prefer the format LP, we need to wait a little bit more. It will be worth the wait.