Artist: Hulder
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Cassette EP
Year: 2025
Hulder started out as a good, yet considerably predictable and rather unoriginal Black Metal band, but over the course of this band’s existence the music progressed and developed tremendously. While the debut album, 2021’s ‘Godslastering: Hymns Of A Forlorn Peasantry’ was still offering rather classic Black Metal, it also felt like the closing of a chapter. From then on, Hulder slowly started to stray away from the trodden path of the Black Metal genre and started opting for an increasingly heavier sound. ‘The Eternal Fanfare’ (2022) was the starting point of what eventually cumulated in the second album ‘Verses In Oath’, which was by far the darkest and heaviest Hulder recording thus far. With the band’s latest self-released cassette EP, ‘A Beacon From Darkened Skies’, that journey into darkness continues.
‘A Beacon From Darkened Skies’ offers two new tracks of which the opening title track is a hard-hitting almost Death Metal-like track that only marginally reminds of Hulder’s early goings. Instead this feels much closer to what a band like Aeternus was doing on their first records. As a matter of fact, this feels like the album the Norwegians could have made after the first two classics, leading up to ‘Shadows Of Old’. The boldly forward thrusting pace and the constant rolling riffs and drums have very little in common with what we usually identify with Black Metal, on top of that are the barking vocals of Marliese “Hulder” Beeuwsaert (Osborne) that definitely has an obvious Death Metal vibe to it and reminds of Behemoth’s Nergal. But, the atmospheric use of keyboards and the passages that the music slows down a tad, that’s where the Black Metal starts to shine through. And if you were in doubt, towards the end of the song there is a full-on blasting part that leaves no doubt that Hulder is still very much a Black Metal band. Yet, it is also very clear that the band is further pushing its boundaries and doesn’t feel caged by any of the many unwritten rules within the Black Metal genre.
Whether it is a coincidence or not, Hulder is assisted on various occasions by musicians that are more tied to the Death Metal genre than anything else. Previously we saw surfacing such musicians as Charles Koryn (Ascended Dead, Decrepisy, Funebrarum a.o.) and Sam Osborne (Funebrarum, Bone Sickness, Undergang a.o.) and now also Erik Hæggernes (ex-Gorgoroth and ex-Aeternus (aha!)). So, let’s just assume that Hulder’s vision on music is broadening and deepening, something that honestly leads to far more interesting music.
After this intense and crushing first song, the second feels like a cooling down like no other. ‘Zonnesteen’ (Dutch for ‘Sun Stone’) is a Folk track in which Hulder duets with her husband Sam Osborne, backed by war drums and acoustic instruments. This sort of music has been popularized “recently” by acts like Wardruna and Heilung, but this feels much closer, both musically and spiritually, to Hagalaz Runedance. Mainly due to the quiet and modest sound and Hulder’s angelic voice – a stark contrast with her bellowing growls in the first track.
This EP was only available on a cassette tape that the band self-released and made available through Hulder’s Bandcamp page. It is a shame that European, and most likely every other non-American, fans have to pay about 30 bucks for shipping. I can only hope that this EP will be made available in one format or another to other markets as well. This is simply too good to be available in such limited quantities.
