Mavorim - Axis Mundi (2020)

Starting 2020 on fire, German label Purity Through Fire unleashes yet another excellent Black Metal release with Mavorim’s sophomore full-length release “Axis Mundi”. Presenting a mixture of Ambient elements with Melodic Black Metal spurts, this release clock in at around 60 minutes of engaging and crafty music. As a one-man entity, this outfit’s sound is a bit retro, folk-like, heavy and powerful at the same time.

After the mood setting into, we get the mystical “Aus Asche auferstanden” filled with subtle synths and a demolishing BM pace. The harsh screams perfectly blend in with the powerful riffs and the very well marked drums. This very martial musical structure is quite effective in creating well delineated songs that are enjoyable and yet predictable, as the dreamy “Wo kriegergleiche Kräfte walten” and its magical clean vocal arrangements.

The sense of melody that P. crafts into tracks like “Wie ein Sturm” and “Die letzte Festung”, allows them to be quite engaging and perfect for a heavy dose of headbanging. Creating very unique and mystical tracks, songs like “Der Himmel bricht entzwei” and “Verbannt in Dunkelheit” feature the perfect balance between folky atmospherics. This particularly mixture of styles reminds us of bands like User Ne with a splash of Eisregen thrown into the mix, particularly on the album title track.

Filling in the release with a cover of fairly unknown (but excellent) track, “Kaiserjägerlied”, and another version of one of the songs in the release, with a new vocalist, we can’t help but wonder with the need to fill in more time. Overall, “Axis Mundi” shows a very creative and prolific Mavorim crafting its own path on a genre that is quite crowded these days. If you are looking for different and engaging, all songs in this release will certainly keep you entertained.

Label: Purity Through Fire

Release: January 31st, 2020

Genre: Ambient/Atmospheric Black Metal

Country: Germany