July isn’t, in my humble opinion, the right time to release Black Metal. The long, sunny days and short warm nights see to it that my head and heart isn’t filled with dark thoughts. That said, you can always convince me otherwise, and the Finnish Chamber of Unlight managed to do so.
After a demo, multi-instrumentalist Necrosis (Trollheims Grott) and Kassara (Horna, Trollheims Grott) managed to put a spell on you with “Realm of the Night” creating a haunting, ghostly and straight back to the nineties Black Metal epos. The dark and twisted imagery and ditto production makes sure you will dwell in the crypts of darkness for forty minutes.
It doesn’t reinvent the genre and to be frank this album isn’t original at all.
But as I said before: that isn’t a problem when it excels in creating great tracks, and Chamber of Unlight manages to keep you enthralled the entire album.
This album simply oozes with atmosphere and is haunting, dark and at times quite aggressive. The eerie keyboard laced tracks and great riffs are a pleasure to listen to. Add the extraordinary vocals of Necrosis, especially when chanting, to the mix and you have Black Metal just like I like it. That means: loads of atmosphere and occult themes sucking you in a vortex of darkness.
Opener “Prooemium” is an interlude of the agony which will follow later. “Crowns of Divinity” sets the trend. Great riffs, pounding drums, the excellent throat of Necrosis and the cool, gloomy keyboards make sure that my ears are in trance. The same goes for “Revelation of Dark Crafts” and the aggressive “On the Path of Thy Shadow” Especially the chanting vocals are mesmerizing in this song. The overall gloomy and threatening atmosphere make sure that you are clinged to your seat until closing track “Uncelestial Light (The Chamber)” makes a fitting end to this journey. “Uncelestial Light” with its spoken word sometimes even bring me back to the old Dimmu Borgir-days which can be regarded as a compliment.
I can only conclude that “Realm of the Night” is a great album. The production, sublime tracks and simply superb atmosphere of this album sucks you in and let you dwell until the journey is over. Expect nothing new but expect Black Metal music crafted in mystic manner like it used too and only a few can. When listening to this it doesn’t feel like summer at all, and that means something! If you are a fan of some orthodox (Finnish) Black Metal listen this dark piece of art and buy it on a format you like. You won’t be disappointed. The past isn’t alive because it never died and I can only conclude: great stuff!
Score: 8/10
Review made by: Erik
Label: Werewolf Records
Release date: August 13th 2021
Tracklist:
01 Prooemium 1:36
02 Crowns of Divinity 4:02
03 Revelations of Dark Crafts 5:02
04 On The Path of Thy Shadow 5:12
05 From Grey Tombs 5:32
06 Summoning the Spirit of The Dead 5:12
07 Slumber 6:36
08 Uncelestial Light (The Chamber) 5:57
