Artist: Frailord
Country: Canada
Label: Narbentage Produktionen
Formats: Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
On the cover of this cassette tape you see, what I presume, is the musician behind Frailord. He’s also behind or involved in such acts like Erythrite Throne, Moss Golem and An Old Witches’ Hat. But besides these firmly on Dungeon Synth (and the likes) leaning acts, he obviously has a good taste in Black Metal as well. At least, that’s what the patches on his jacket tells us. Taking a closer look it is easy to spot bands like Horna, Limbonic Art, Gorgoroth, Behexen and what I think is Satanic Warmaster. And frankly, this cassette tape offers something that fits right in between…
To cut a long story short: there’s a lot of Dungeon Synth and electronics to be heard on ‘A Pillar Of Divinity Hidden Beneath The Veil Of Monstrosity’, even some pumping electronic beats, but there’s enough Black Metal for the more “regular” fan of the genre to enjoy as well. Yet, the kind of spacey and sometimes slightly quirky electronics are seemingly the reason why the act hasn’t been accepted by the Metal-Archives gatekeepers, but don’t let that fool you: this is an interesting and versatile Black Metal album.
If we would approach this in more “old school” terminology, you could say that this is a mix between Limbonic Art, eearly-to-mid period Mortiis and some random early 00’s Raw Black Metal. Yet, it isn’t always served to you in a mixed cocktail. That means you sometimes have to work yourself through some spacey ambient or, the other side of the spectrum, you’re being treated on some rather orthodox Black Metal. Still, you need to have a certain open mind or at least feel comfortable with the use of some electronics in your daily dose of Black Metal.
‘A Pillar Of Divinity Hidden Beneath The Veil Of Monstrosity’ might not be everyone’s cup of tea and it most likely it will piss off a few purists as well, but that’s the fun of Black Metal I suppose: it can be creative and abrasive.
