Artist: Occult Mountain
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
Hot on the heals of this project’s debut demo, Occult Mountain is already back with another. ‘Winter Invocations’ was a particularly charming demo that showcased a great balancing act between Raw-ish Black Metal, bordering Lo-Fi aesthetics, with a good dose of keyboard driven mid-to-late-90’s, almost romantic Dungeon Synth. A great demo for sure, so I am not bothered to hear yet another little piece of work from Fallen Warrior, the one behind Occult Mountain.
In my review on ‘Winter Invocations’ I ranted about the project not being accepted in the Metal-Archives database. And, obviously, that is still the case, probably based on the project’s heavy use of keyboards. Yet those gatekeeping elitists couldn’t be more off, especially with this second demo Occult Mountain is as bleak and black as Black Metal can get. Raw guitars, a blistering pace and harsh vocals are all over the place, making this demo feel like it is positioning itself somewhere between the first three Burzum albums and something that Xasthur used to do before it went all arty-farty.
‘Walking The Snow Covered Path’ is all about gloomy and icy cold Black Metal, honoring traditional Black Metal values that takes you back a good two decades. In the process, this demo very much lives up to its title. In just under 20 minutes Fallen Warrior is not only again proving the Metal-Archives people wrong, but he’s especially proving himself to be a great song writer with an impeccable sense for dynamics and captivating melancholy. Totally recommended.
