Genre: Black Metal
Location: Säynätsalo, Finland
Release date: 2021
Label: Northern Heritage Records
Website: Facebook
After the EP Warloghe released in 2017, Lucifer Ascends, I wondered for a bit if they would have a follow-up to 2003's Womb of Pestilence. It turns out we get Three Angled Void, 18 years later, released relatively quietly through the common suspects of Northern Heritage in Finland. The band has achieved its own cult status due to its first two albums, and even almost two decades later, nothing has changed with Warloghe.
This includes all the points that I enjoy about them, as well as the ones I don't. It seems to me the project has an above average perception when it comes to its aesthetics and textual content (cover art, titles, concepts etc...). They don't fall into the blasphemous, straightforward words of other Finnish bands. They don't overload their covers with Old English fonts and logos, instead they are all the time, plain and enigmatic. I equally like the newest art of Three Angled Void, as simplistic as it seems. It is worth it to own an LP of The First Possession or Womb of Pestilence, just because of the awesome artwork, and the same applies for this.
Nevertheless, the actual music of Warloghe is regrettably moderate at most times, with only a handful of more blistering moments. It it was the case in the past, it's also with Three Angled Void that I struggle to maintain focus when listening, while enjoying a track part here and there but that's about it. The production is very close to Warloghe's older material, fairly chalky but not always to a good extent, basically providing a far-flung instrumentation sound that's almost detached from the shrieked vocals on top. The middle / slow paced pieces in Three Angled Void are sluggish and too familiar, making "The Everburning", or "Inhuman Error" difficult to remember.
On the other hand, more exciting activity appears in the more aggressive lines of "Invultuations From the Black Earth", and "Lucifer Ascends" (not a new track but a part of the aforementioned EP). "Starlit Portals Amidst Mass Graves" also offers a few fine, traditional black metal melodies, but the constant one dimensional vocals of the record doesn't seem to catch up with the ferocity of these pieces. I liked how minimally the album ends with "Singularities Descend", and especially its final two minutes.
Even after all this time, Warloghe's work remains completely unchanged, to standard black metal with a few extra elements that the fans might enjoy, and Three Angled Void fits perfectly to their back catalog. It could have been released one day after Womb of Pestilence. While I support the band for its overall stance, and they have not received unreasonable exposure all these years, their music often doesn't pass the average bar for me, but it's always a nice feeling to see projects like this active and sticking to what they want to do.
Tracklist:
1. The Everburning
2. Lucifer Ascends
3. Inhuman Mirror
4. Invultuations from the Black Earth
5. Starlit Portals Amidst Mass Graves
6. Singularities Descend
Damage: 3/5 [Good]
Still a cool album.
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