Artist: Osgraef
Country: Uknown
Label: Amor Fati Productions
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
At the time of writing, practically nothing is known about this brand-new band that fires their debut album at us out of nowhere with ‘Reveries Of The Arcane Eye’. Apart from the fact that they are apparently a duo, derived from the band photo showing two vaguely depicted figures in the snow, there is really nothing meaningful to report. But as often happens in cases like this: the music speaks volumes, so let’s just focus on that…
Amor Fati Productions, the label at service, introduces the duo to us as a band that reflects everything that Teitanblood and Archgoat stands for with a good dose of Armagedda-styled Black Metal. Well, since I am a big fan of all three, I was naturally all ears. But, although ‘Reveries Of The Arcane Eyes’ really is a splendid debut album that is easily amongst the best records from the Amor Fati Productions stables, it is not all that closely related to either Teitanblood or Archgoat, and there’s simply zero Armagedda in there.
Not everything that is dark and brooding Black/Death Metal is related to the sophisticated chaos of Teitanblood or the utter barbarism or Archgoat. Although Osgraef does use some similar ingredients, this duo takes a much more structured and orderly approach to it. There’s some good and compelling dynamism in the music, but the speedy parts are just speedy parts and the vocals are more aligned with traditional Black/Death semi-growling than with any thunderous and bellowing roars of the Ross Bay tradition.
That is the danger of using the wrong comparisons, you can lead people astray and mismanage expectations. And that’s quite a shame as Osgraef definitely has something to offer for the fans of Blackened Death Metal (or Deathly Black Metal), because that is in fact where Osgraef takes its position: way more close to bands like Dead Congregation or Cruciamentum than to Teitanblood. The rather lengthy tracks all offer a palpable doomy-and-gloomy atmosphere that gives the listener something to sink their teeth in. The heavy but rather “clean” (relatively speaking) gives the music enough fuel for those doomier parts; the music’s eerie and uncanny spirit is one of the major assets of the music. That culminates mostly in the closing more than eight-minute track that starts off with some haunting intro and in which the most profound Black Metal riffs take the lead; an interesting interplay between some arrhythmic drums, transverse and dark riffs and the strong vocals.
To cut a long story short: ‘Reveries Of Arcane Eyes’ is a strong and convincing debut album. Although the identity of the two behind the band is still shrouded in mists, it is quite clear that these guys are not doing this for the first time. Since Osgraef are definitely offering the same sort of quality of what usually is coming from the Nuclear Winter Records roster, it should be obvious who should put this record on their to-check out list.
