Artist: Ichors Glaive
Country: USA
Label: Parasyte Curse
Formats: Demo tape
Year: 2025
Hot on the tail of their warmly received debut demo, Ichors Glaive returns with ‘Jörmungandr’. Released in March of 2025 on tape by Parasyte Curse, it can rightfully be called a logical continuation of 2024’s ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’. But it does change some accents in the music, starting with the production.
On the second demo, the band has tweaked their production, or perhaps their guitar sound, to a more buzzing heavier sound without forfeiting the rawness of the previous recording. It gives it even more of a Hate Forest vibe than before. The melodic elements become even more obscured than on the previous recording, although the material isn’t devoid of melody. It gives the music a beefier appearance and with it, a more threatening atmosphere that is sometimes broken in beautiful ways, for instance by the clean strumming instrumental ‘Sorrow’. In addition, while the band has retained the rather minimal variation in guitar riffs of the first demo, the compositions feel a little bit more diverse, in particular in the shifting tempos of the drums. It gives the music a recognisable but unpredictable character and also highlights atmosphere even more. Finally, the band has expanded their use of clean chanting vocals alongside the hoarse shrieks. Those that read my previous review of ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’ may expect the ensuing rant.
I’m more than aware of a vast history of dodgy clean vocals in Black Metal, and I too have come to appreciate the works of for instance Quorthon and Fenriz despite them going awkwardly off-key. In particular in extreme genres, the passion and intensity makes up for any vocal abilities. But in the case of Ichors Glaive the clean vocals just rub me entirely the wrong way. That was already the case on ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’, but on the newest demo the band has even added a second layer of clean vocals, making the start of for instance ‘Fortress Enshroud (They Lie Buried Beneath the Ground)’ to me just awkward to listen to. Sure, it’s this bit of drunken chanting that adds to the Pagan vibe, but it’s used to such an extent that at this point it becomes overused and just detracts from the music. So, while the first demo could get away with it, on ‘Jörmungandr’ it comes at the cost of an enjoyable experience for me.
I’m left with a contradiction. Almost everything feels like an improvement on ‘Jörmungandr’. The more humming sound, the more versatile tempos with the recognizable riffs, the quality of the riffs, the atmosphere. But while they were passable in quantity on ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’, the extended clean vocals just drag ‘Jörmungandr’ substantially down for me.
Whether ‘Jörmungandr’ will also be released by Medieval Prophecy Records I’m not aware off. Given the reception of ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’ I’m sure that many would be keen to get their hands on a copy on vinyl, especially given the limited run of 66 tapes available for ‘Jörmungandr’ for now. Personally, it’s one I would let pass though.
