Artist: Wolves Of Desor
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
At the last days of December 2023 I stumbled upon the debut demo by Wolves Of Desor, a then new one-man project by M. who had otherwise concentrated mainly on his other project, Wraithlord. Without wanting to take anything away from Wraithlord and by far claiming to have heard everything M. did with that project, I thoroughly loved that first Wolves Of Desor demo. So, I was glad to see that M. returned to this project with a second demo. However, he has now involved his Baazlvaat and ex-Wraithlord mate Nlorgpipe on drums and additional vocals.
The debut demo, ‘Lost Kingdom Of The Giants’ was a great start for a new project, especially keeping in mind that at the time M. was still in his teens. But while that demo had a great youthful spirit, the music on offer sounded much more mature. Its Black Metal, strongly balancing between the raw and atmospheric flavors, presented a strong understanding of what the Black Metal genre stands for in terms of a melancholy spirit and a multi-dimensional and multi-layered palette of colors.
‘The Witch Of November’ largely continues to explore these same territories. Raw and Atmospheric Black Metal, heavily laced with beautiful acoustics and subtle folky melodies. But, the main difference is the much stronger Eastern European connotation. While the previous demo already had some evident resemblances with Ukrainian and Russian Black Metal, this specific characteristic has been pushed further to the front. The While less pronounced as opposed to bands like Forest or Walknut for instance, the propulsive guitars to play a major role in the overall vibe of the demo, albeit sounding less sharp. The howling vocals on top do add a bit of a Bilskirnir or Branikald flair, finishing the Eastern feeling of these six tracks – together clocking in well over 45 minutes.
‘Lost Kingdom Of The Giants’ already was a tremendous debut demo, but ‘The Witch Of November’ is taking the music a few steps further, basically on all dimensions, making it a splendid return of the band. The monotony of music is propelling all the little details onto whole new levels of brilliance. Just take a listen to ‘Spirit Of Evil’ and immerse yourself in the world of this obscure but first class project.
