Malacath - Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain (2025)

Unleashing waves of old-school Black Metal, today we have Malacath and their latest offering “Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain”. Featuring a timeless and quite raw sound, this band delivers incisive BM for over 53 minutes with a few surprises. For fans of early Ulver and similar outfits, this release packs a mean punch while satiating primal urges.

Opening with the album title track, the band unleashes its fury after an atmospheric build up. We instantly got 90’s BM vibes from this outfit thanks to the razor sharp guitar tones and the simplistic and yet effective structure. However, not all is as it seems as after a while this track suddenly transforms into Ulver’s “Bergtatt” with lush acoustic guitars thrown into the mix. The tempo is again picked up on “Call of the Specter”, a ravaging piece full of ferocity and enigmatic melody.

With most tracks being over nine minutes long, songs like “A Hymn for the Harvest” nicely develop with hypnotic melodic passages and crafty atmospheric interludes. All of these elements create a very dense and nurturing atmosphere that goes in different directions, keeping their raw approach quite engaging with some ripping guitar leads thrown into the mix as well. Masterfully mixing slow and atmospheric with cavernous and punishing, tracks like “Blood of Our Fathers” are quite effective as they need more than a few spins to fully digest.

Closing with an acoustic piece, “Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain” is one of those highly engaging Black Metal releases that while it fits in several molds, it also creates its own mystique and style. Malacath is definitely a very interesting band with some serious songwriting skills and this release should not fly under the radar of any fan of European 90’s BM.

Label: Eternal Death

Release: February 21st, 2025

Genre: Black Metal

Country: USA