Artist: Kêres
Country: Finland
Label: His Wounds
Formats: LP
Year: 2025
While Kêres amassed an impressive number of demos in the earliest years of its existence, the last few years main man Atvar has been churning out a respectable number of full-length records. At the close of 2025, The Finn dropped full-length number eight, clad with the Italian title ‘Misticismo Senza Radici’ which translates to ‘Mysticism Without Roots’. After a side-step to Final Agony Records for the release of ‘Skryer of the Lighthouse’, it sees the band return to His Wounds from Greece, the home of album number six ‘Eidolon Abraxas’.
With 13 songs and a whopping total playing length of 70 minutes, this is by far the lengthiest record in the Kêres discography. I’m not going to lie, it seemed like a daunting task to tackle such a lengthy record. But fair is fair, there was never any reason to doubt Atvar. Despite the length, musically the formula is not much different than any other Kêres record, with regressive Black Metal that combines the likes of Celtic Frost, Tormentor, Barathrum, Samael at the very core. But as before, while the influences remain constant, certainly accents have shifted on one record compared to the other.
As a whole, ‘Misticismo Senza Radici’ seems a bit more on the theatrical, more Horror-esque and melancholic side. An atmosphere not conjured through the addition of keyboards, an element that Atvar used on several of the previous Kêres records but only sparsely uses on ‘Misticismo Senza Radici’. No, the atmosphere comes strictly from the riffs, while obviously the trademark minimal song structures remain a core feature. There’s certainly a good number of tracks that are more melody-driven, occult and yearning even in tone. Perhaps it’s the Italian titles that influence the notion, but it seems that the album leans more towards the phenomenal ‘All the Witches Dance’ by the Italians of Mortuary Drape.
With the extended length of the songs and album you may expect much more stretched out songs and slower passages. Indeed, a track like ‘Ci Credo’ starts off slowly and for instance ‘Cercando Le Ombre Delle Ossa’ is almost entirely low to medium pace. But a song like ‘Questa Dorme’ is a pretty much all-out regressive Black Metal attack filled to the rim with menacing drums and catchy tapping 80’s riffs. As a whole, Atvar doesn’t really hold back on the tempo changes, offering his typical combination of catchy riffs with a flurry drums and plenty of groove. The tremolo-riff laden ‘Non Si Guarda Indietro’ is even rather melodic but also has a great Rocking vibe to it. The eerie riffs of ‘Iavvoltoio’, the melancholic tone of ‘Cercando Le Ombre Delle Ossa’, the Celtic Frost groove and gloomy break of ‘I Vestiti Del Destino’, the fantastic melody and pummeling drums of ‘Chiamate‘, the Heavy Metal riffs of ‘Lo Specchio Triofante’… I’m sure you get the point by now. Every single song offers something to enjoy. Even with the extended album and track length, the rather minimal and repetitive nature of Kêres remains very much intact, once again showing that it’s really all about good riffs. And let’s face it, those flow through Atvar like it’s his lifeblood.
To me Kêres is an utterly charming band, and ‘Misticismo Senza Radici’ fits right in with the rest of the discography. To be honest, 70 minutes of regressive Black Metal seemed like a little bit too much of a good thing but while I still think it’s a bit too long, I admire how Atvar has managed to keep it interesting throughout. If anything it shows his incredible capacity to write catchy riffs and keep reinventing himself within a range of influences that aims to deliver regressive and simplistic Black Metal.
