Artist: Helleruin
Country: The Netherlands
Label: New Era Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD
Year: 2023
Even for many a seasoned connoisseur, Helleruin’s sudden rising star must have come as a surprise. If I may speak for myself: it came out of nowhere for me. To be honest, both the demo (‘Demo ’16’) and the ‘War Upon Man’-album, released in 2021, however both of rock-solid quality, were not, in my opinion, of such magnitude as to explain the heated online/Discogs battle for Helleruin vinyl and the band’s rather impressive touring schedule. Also, the gig I saw of them in early 2022 was fine, but again not very conclusive either.
It was then mainly a matter of looking forward to what Carchost would do with his Helleruin on the much-anticipated second album. That is what we have here, in the form of ‘Devils, Death And Dark Arts’, again released through New Era Productions. And while I do not include myself among the critically-minded, my preservation towards Helleruin has been completely cleared with this second full-length. To be precise, I am very impressed with the progress the band shows on ‘Devils, Death And Dark Arts’. No doubt the frequent touring will have had a great influence on this stunning step into maturity. The songs on this album seem much better balanced and mainly bring a far richer dynamic and musical versatility. There is frequent flirting with Folk influences with the album taking on a somewhat Pagan sound at times. The variety in tempos and riff-intensity make a comparison with the earliest work of Taake and Kampfar more than justified, inevitable perhaps.
Like Taake, the giant in the Norwegian Black Metal canon, Helleruin manages to exude a grandeur on ‘Devils, Death And Dark Arts’ that feels both familiar and overwhelming at the same time. And if Carchost proves anything on this second epic, it is that there is plenty of room for the splendour and craft of excellent songwriting even within Black Metal. That feeling comes out especially well when the band takes some breathing space, for instance on ‘All Shades Of Ferocity’ which is a moody and ambient-like interlude, or the beautifully subdued piano passages on the album’s closing track, ‘Hymn Of Life And Death’. A perfect closing song which has a great Mgła-vibe to it.
While it may seem a bit easy to draw comparisons with Taake and Kampfar, as Helleruin toured with both Norwegian bands, this comparison seems the most fitting one musically. But it also offers even more future perspective. With ‘Devils, Death And Dark Arts’, Carchost demonstrates an extraordinary capacity for learning and has proven himself a musical visionary, implicitly and perhaps unintentionally raising expectations of the future even further. But before that happens, we now have this album to savour; and it would not surprise me if we will later regard ‘Devils, Death And Dark Arts’ as a classic of Dutch Black Metal.
