Vultures

Riding forth upon warsteeds of the Mongol Khans blessed battle command, comes that rasping force of raw black fire known only by the herald of Inferno Requiem, that prince of princes and the darkest spectre of spectral warrior chants. For more than two decades now, this entity of pagan enlightenment has scorned the contemporary world of ephemeral comfort, unleashing incantation after incantation of folklore fulminations and devastating warspell song. Of these incantations, those held closest by those ancient ghosts of the great Golden Horde, are those ensorcelled to spread the majesty of that fabled empire. The first was Wolf of the Onon Realm, a sky blinding barrage of raw black barbed arrow brutality, which began this tetralogy by combining the folk heritage of those great emperors with a scorching array of melodic black melancholy. The second, Conqueror of the Golden Horde, continued this sacred tradition and sang spirits of black wind fortress and the northern barbarian king himself. The third, Fear of Tartarus, spread song of Tartarus itself and the great quest of the Khans, and those that followed their ways. But it is only, here, in this place of iron whispers and steel dreams, that the final piece of this mysterious puzzle comes to be completed.

Vultures is the final stroke of steel, the last dance of the warsteeds, the ring of blood come full circle. Wielding configurations of ancient Mongolian folk sounds, with that of contemporary raw melodic black metal, this incantation carved forth a two shock strike of narrative focused structure—utilising its composition to take those experiencing it upon a journey into the ancient northern wildlands of the Golden Horde, and the wide stretch of its gilded dominion. The chants of the blessed warlords greet those first whom hear the mighty wings of the condor, an atmospheric introduction of throat orations and tribal rhythms, all to play harbinger to that torrent of glacial dissonance brought forth by snarling melodies of black metal brutality. The biting glacier of tremolo guitar poetry freezing the sparse grasslands of eldritch wonder.

It is this wonder that Fog has wreathed his vagabond spellcraft around the guitar melodies used throughout Vultures in masterful reverie. Soaring high in bitter note above the furious clash of percussive bombardment, these tremolo melodies leave those experiencing them with a weariness of heart, eldritch lamentations for those barbarian vultures brought low by the ever expanding hand of cosmopolitan blasphemy. The latter half of opening spell, “Vultures, Bring My Ashes to the North Sea”, is an excellent example of this virtuosic mastery of melody, especially when combined with a the vague hints of sombre synth tune elevates the guitar melodies into even deeper shades of weeping sorrow. It is these melodies which lead the march through the permafrost, and lay low the lands of the weak surrounding them, the grand banner of the Golden Horde and its sonorous song—all made possible by Fog’s mastery of his sacrificial strings.

Which is nothing to say of this percussive bombardment, those clashing rhythms which propel Vultures forward upon frosted fury of northern spirit supplication, for they are a force of martial triumph all in their own right. Whether they be blazing forth at break neck blast beat speeds, as shown in the opening section of, “Vultures, Bring My Ashes to the North Sea”, or the more mid-paced ministrations found in the latter half of “Celestial Burial Under Heart of Ice”; the percussive elements Fog employs and executes without hesitation are awe inspiring to behold, knowing best when to support those aforementioned melodies of melancholy, and when best to take centre stage. Cattle skin wardrums eviscerating all that stand in their way, with each black beat, and slaughter strike, ramping up the desperate nature of the combat those of the Golden Horde faced. Of lands to be won, and lands to be lost.

What is not lost, however, is the deep thematic embrace of a people’s history, and that age of cultural transition the Mongol Khans, and their descendants, would face over the centuries. Fog has evoked this age with poetic vision from the first of the Golden Horde tetralogy, with Vultures continuing this sacred tradition, the visual imagery used to represent the sounds contained within to perfection. Of lone warriors stalking the harsh northern wildlands, sledding through the bloodstained snow, warrior prowess, wolves, and determination, their only allies in a world forsaken and forlorn. The excellent choice to include Mongolian throat singing and true folk sounds as an entry point for the incantation also speaks to this evocation, the contrast between it and the following bombast of melodic black sorcery, enchaining this link between the contemporary and the ancient. A leyline across history. That though the Golden Horde may be but dust upon winds of black, that it’s spirit still sings true, that the Inferno Requiem shall forever burn in its name.

Bringing the Golden Horde tetralogy to a close, Vultures is the virtuous end to this trinity of noble barbarism, a two spell strike of morose martial intent—utilising a potent multitude of superb melodies, punishing percussion, mournful rasps, folk lamentations and the grand pagan history of a great people. This climatic expression of the Mongol Khans, and the triumphs of their descendants, comes as one of the last to be released by Albion record cabal, Death Kvlt Productions, whom have aligned themselves with Inferno Requiem to bring said incantation to acolytes upon terminal physical artefacts of masterful construction. Evocative, melancholy, triumphant, and sonically infectious, Vultures is a grand ending for the Golden Horde tetralogy and one that those with even a middling interest in the subject matter and melodic black metal, would be remiss to not experience for themselves. An incantation of forgotten conquest and downtrodden empire, one that gives the last swansong to those warriors of old, flys the herald of the Golden Horde one last final time.

Originally published in Gloomhammer III