WINTERFYLLETH

The Reckoning Dawn

CANDLELIGHT

UK black metal standard bearers raise their flag high once more

IT WASN’T LONG ago that British black metal was in a dismal state of disarray. Akercocke had sent their dapper suits permanently to the dry cleaners in 2012, and at the same time, the UK’s most commercially successful black metal act, Cradle Of Filth, were in a bloated, toothless stasis. Rushing across the windswept moors, however, were bands such as A Forest Of Stars, Wodensthrone, Fen and Winterfylleth; hungry acts eager to legitimise UKBM as a scene worthy of Scandinavia and the US in the main.

Winterfylleth emerged as British torchbearers due to the keen balance of folk-infused melody and age-old ferocity at the heart of their music on a tremendous run of releases that spanned four albums between 2008 didn’t quite ripple with the same chest-beating country-pride as its four predecessors. Judging by the velocity at which they blast forth on ’s exhilarating opening gambit,  , though, it appears as if the old English folk departure on 2018’s autumnal has rekindled their inner fire. Part four of The ‘Wayfarer saga’, which began on 2010’s , is as blustery as you’d expect, a darkly swarming sense assault. The violin-aided neo-folk stylings at the beginning of display a level of class above contemporaries Dawn Ray’d, while the closing could stand proud as the fastest, most vicious track in Winterfylleth’s arsenal to date if it wasn’t for its cinematic post-rock ending.