Irae - In the Key of Twilight (2025)

Portuguese one-man Black Metal battalion Irae returns this November with their latest offering “In the Key of Twilight”. Featuring eight tracks and over 40-minutes of hellish music, this release has that primordial viciousness and rawness of the genre, thanks to crafty atmospherics, fierce shrieks and pummeling riffs. If you are looking for that old-school retro Black Metal sound of the late 90s, this band will bring back some memories.

Opening with some melodic guitar leads, this album goes on a full-on destruction path with “Apex Predator” and its vicious onslaughts of blistering drums and fierce shrieks. The band’s musical core is very compact and it transitions brilliantly to melodic head-banging sessions thanks to incisive guitars. Featuring plenty of atmospheric elements and moody tempos, tracks like “Key to the Darkest Path”, “Forlorn”, and “There Will Be Wrath”, keep the listener fully engaged thanks to their cavernous vibe.

Playful tracks like “The End of Light” showcase the band’s versatility in creating sickening atmospheres that send chills down the listener’s spine. The mixture of intense riffing and dreamy atmospherics makes “Black Vault of Nothingness” one of our favorite tracks in this release, while the closer “Negative Energy” ends the release with a very somber and atmospheric tone with a certain ritualistic vibe.

As a whole, “In the Key of Twilight” is one of those releases that will make you want to bust out your dusty studded belt and old leather jacket to jam out to the intense and yet catchy and engaging songs in this release. Vulturius does an excellent job in crafting a highly atmospheric and in-your-face release that brings back memories from the earlier days of Black Metal.

Label: Signal Rex

Release: November 28th, 2025

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Portugal