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Bloedmaan

“Castle Inside the Eclipse” (Immortal Frost Productions, 2023)

2023 was a very significant year for the label, from my perspective. Not many releases, but all very consistent and strong Black Metal records. Infinity, Azaghal, Deadspace, and Infernal Angels were the ones that truly struck the most, mostly due to their capacity to fuse melody and a well-balanced dose of aggressiveness. Well, Deadspace might be considered a differentiated “beast”, but how good was/is that release?! Another example of how broad the label is starting to become without “leaving” the genre.

However, before the year ended, the label brought forth one final release: Bloedmaan. “Castle Inside the Eclipse” came out December 15th, 2023, and it is a superb Black Metal record. Ronarg (Antzaat, Ars Veneficium) gifts us with an amazing set of songs with a clear basis on Black Metal, although I do find some bits and pieces of other musical creations. In all honesty, the album artwork did not give me that good first impression, and it was when the music started playing that I was “destroyed”.

The album clocks at under 30 minutes, but that is more than enough for us, the listeners, to understand how his sound is crafted and how good it is. It is Black Metal, but also slightly Symphonic… keyboard-driven, to be more accurate, and I just love how well the transition from aggressive to melodic is made throughout the whole album. “Winged Flight under the Pale Moon” has these different dynamics, in which the main riff is immensely upbeat, while being very Old School. This apparent discrepancy, though it may sound odd, fits perfectly with the overall atmosphere.

And atmosphere is a word well put into music in this release. There is a clear appeal to Old School sounds and more contemporary details. Does it sound 100% Old School? No. does it sound 100% “modern”? Of course not. I have this sensation that the Finns might have had some influence in Ronarg’s work, but that statement would clearly take away all the hard work put into crafting a differentiated beast.

 “Castle Inside the Eclipse” is, clearly, one of the best Black Metal releases of 2023 in my book.



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