Thursday, January 22, 2026

Arcane Frost--Night's Cavalry (CS/LP) {Bleeding Heart Nihilist Productions}


This is German black metal of a fairly aggressive nature, but with a lot of slower elements to it. Everything is very tight and well-performed, with excellently written songs. The guitar tone instantly reminded me of Hellhammer when they slowed down to a doomed-out pace, and it wouldn't surprise me if they're an influence here. In fact, this band seems to have a proclivity for doom, and their songs either start very slowly or come to a crawl halfway through. The slow parts are agonizing affairs with howled vocals and atmosphere created by instruments alone. The band is quite original, and I can think of no one else that sounds quite like this. They kept the best for last with the title track "Night's Cavalry," which is a great song and all the elements of their sound mesh perfectly here. While this isn't my favorite style of black metal, they have enough fast parts to keep me interested, and that's the challenge, isn't it? I was interested, and that's 90% of the battle. The cover art is also quite fantastic - I spent a while looking at it.