Artist: Vulkan Grit
Country: Finland
Label: Werewolf Records
Formats: CD
Year: 2025
Since I’ve missed the band’s debut EP from 2023, Vulkan Grit arrived to me pretty much out of the blue with their full-length album. But since the Werewolf Records roster usually means you’re dealing with quality, that was enough to give this debut album a shot. Besides, it said “Finnish Black/Thrash”, so I’m all ears…
Honestly, though, the album didn’t spark a fire with me right away. But, after a few more spins, the music unfolded and landed better. Not that anything on ‘Godslaying Arcane Panoply’ is anything sophisticated or otherwise really original. It’s just that Vulkan Grit’s take on the Black/Thrash Metal genre is just a little different from what you might expect. Especially after also seeing the band photos, which is not so different from, say, early Sodom or contemporary bands like Nuctemeron or Sexmag.
Usually, when Black Metal and Thrash Metal are combined, it means there is a good amount of First Wave of Black Metal that takes a head-on collision with early ramshackle Thrash Metal. In other words: Hellhammer and Venom meet Slayer and Sodom. You might have guessed it by now, that is not much the case with Vulkan Grit. They also do not have much in common with bands such as Aura Noir or Deströyer 666. Instead they turned to the Second Wave of Black Metal and a slightly sharper edged sort of Thrash Metal. Of course, there’s still obvious hints to the Gods of old, but it is clear that Vulkan Grit has been looking elsewhere for their main inspiration – or at least, it seems so.
Other than changing the ingredients, the band left the recipe intact. That means that the primal Black Metal is swapped for a slightly more melodic and tremolo-picked variant of the genre and the Thrash Metal has more to with the tightness and fast-paced sort that was more en vogue in the 90s. Vulkan Grit weaves these elements together into a whole that sounds a bit fresher than the average Black/Thrash Metal band’s mix, but it has the same viciousness and unbridled energy.
It is good to see that even this specific niche genre, with its rigid values, can surprise you from time to time. For that alone, the band gets a thumbs up, but beyond that, ‘Godslaying Arcane Panoply’ is a solid debut album that the band can be proud of.
