The Stone
“Kletva” (Immortal Frost Productions, 2025)
The Stone is a Servian band, around since the 90s – although living under a different moniker – that plays Black Metal in its full extent. It could be as simple as that, right? I do miss when bands played Black Metal, period. Well, we can still find them, but most seem to have “something extra”, which normally is not a good extra. “Kletva” is the Serbian’s 10th full-length release, and it is a great Black Metal band.
2025 has been the year where I have been drawn the most to the more melodic, and well-produced, side of Black Metal. I did miss the “clean” melody, the more riff-driven tunes, the sound I was raised on, in a way. And for that, I know Immortal Frost Productions has my back, and that is why I do truly spread the Lord’s word for Surtur, as the man knows how to gather the right players around him… I did not get paid for that.
Back to the album. “Kletva” is truly a great record. The Pagan lineage is present in the way the band plays around with melodies and structures, still very much enrooted in the 90s sound, the band gets these melodic guitar solos, drum fills, everything melodic, and the end result is a perfectly balanced beast of a sound! Alongside the melody, we have the power it holds, and the overwhelmingly atmosphere it crafts! We tend to use the word atmosphere around quite easily, and wrongly I dare say, but The Stone builds up these atmospheres where one almost feels absorbed into, and it is amazing.
In the end, The Stone is one of those bands that easily puts a smile – a demonic one, please – on the lips of an Old School Black Metalhead, correct? They have all the elements one needs: the melody, the aggressiveness, the Pagan atmospheres and elements – subtle, which is good – the vocals are au point, so… what more to ask for?! You tell me. Oh, and balanced, the record is enormously well-adjusted in terms of how it flows, effortlessly and efficiently. Once more, fantastic record.
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