Style: Keyboard driven black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Expertly created black metal with a fun edge
Thoughts: The Spell of Eternal Fire kicks ass. It has no business being as good as it is. These 26 minutes have some of the most fun, high intensity black metal I've heard in quite some time. It's a phenomenal addition to the collection.
So what makes this so good? I'm glad you asked! White Rune's demo has this thing called riffs, and boy do they kick ass! Starting with a great dungeon synth esque intro, the album explodes into one of the best songs on here: Pestilence Upon Us.
This short song has riff after riff pummeling the listener over and over again. Mix this with some punk inspired beats and vocals that hearken back to the early days of the genre you have a winning combination. Take a moment and listen to the part where Ruttokieli screams "We have returned to where we came from!" That mixed with the pipe organ keyboards, blast beats and d-beats... god damn its good.
Contrast this with the intense blast beat driven The Sinister Force of the Moon where the band goes full speed at all points. The album is quite varied from song to song, yet the quality remains.
The whole album it sounds like the band is having fun. They don't take themselves too seriously as evidenced by the music's light hearted feel. The whole affair is simply excellent.
I wish that I had more black metal like this. Not too serious, yet not so loose that it ends up sounding like a parody of the genre (see Old Nick). For now though, I have this excellent record and I'm proud to call myself the owner of a copy of The Spell of Eternal Fire.
Written July 22nd 2024
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