Artist: Burning Winds
Country: USA
Label: Werewolf Records
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
In these times when everything is readily available and bands release one album after another, when transience and superficiality reign supreme, when attention spans seem to last no longer than a few minutes, it is bands like Burning Winds that remind you of other, long-gone times. Having been founded in 1997, NecroDan, the solitary soul behind the band, has been on something that feels like a lonely crusade against everything that has a glimpse of beauty or glamour. Burning Winds’ kind of Black Metal is as ugly as it comes. The promo sheet provided by Werewolf Records calls it “Hellhammer-meets-Beherit primitivism”, and that’s really quite much spot on.
Coming from the rust belt city of Michigan, Burning Winds feels like a product of both its time and origin. Basically the same as fellow citizens of Summon, Wind Of The Black Mountains and Masochist, the savage and primitive character of the music is evident throughout the entire Burning Winds. Reflecting the ugly side of everything, Burning Winds is somewhat the Mr. Hyde of the modern day Black Metal scene.
And as opposed to those bands spewing five full-length albums, three EP’s and a handful of splits a year, ‘Hell And Damnation’ is Burning Winds’ first long player. After good amounts of DIY-tapes or releases through many a small label, there was little hope that an actual Burning Winds album would ever surface. But now that it is here, I think this is really the only way NecroDan would do it. It is this way, or no way at all.
Most of Burning Winds’ previously released material is on the harsh side and unlistenable for the average Watain or Blackbraid fan, ‘Hell And Damnation’ competes for the rawest and most unpolished recording ever to come from NecroDan’s crypt. To add another dimension to its unlikability, every of this album’s nine tracks comes with an intro – early Acheron-style. As expected, those intros break much of the momentum and natural flow of the album, but it absolutely fits the concept of what Burning Winds is.
Other than that, ‘Hell And Damnation’ is exactly what you would come to expect from Burning Winds. One of the earliest comments I read on the album was someone calling this album “effortless mediocre Black Metal – in a good sense”. That pretty much sums up what this album is about. NecroDan never ever showed a glimpse of ambition to do things better or differently. I don’t even know whether this whole thing is a gimmick or that Burning Winds is the result of his musical limitations. But regardless, all those ragged edges and rough surfaces are just what makes Burning Winds – without all that, Burning Winds wouldn’t be the same.
Whether or not this is indeed the swansong of Burning Winds, as NecroDan already claimed a few months ago, at least we finally have that long-awaited full-length album in our hands. And yes, it’s ugly and it will leave many people confused, but this is how we want to hear and remember Burning Winds.
