Sunday 28 April 2019

ALBUM REVIEW: Vargrav, "Reign In Supreme Darkness"

By: Conor O’Dea


Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 29/04/2019
Label: Werewolf Records


“Reign in Supreme Darkness” is a dark and blossoming crystallization of all the threat and wonder of “Netherstorm” - a full opera, a syncretic and well-realized symphony. Recommended without reservation.

“Reign in Supreme Darkness” CD//DD//LP track listing:


1. Intro – Et In Profundis Mysteriis
2. The Glory of Eternal Night
3. Dark Space Dominion
4. In Streams From Great Mysteries
5. As the Shadows Grow Silent
6. Crowned By Demonstorms
7. Godless Pandemonium
8. Arcane Stargazer


The Review: 

It is unfortunate that the words 'opera' and 'symphony' in metal have come to denote bombast, hyper-ornamentation and bloat. Even the word 'majestic' carries with it connotations of the overwrought annals of power metal gone cancerous and overgrown. The juxtaposed subtlety and power of symphonic and operatic composition perhaps have never found a better mestari than Finland's Jean Sibelius, whose tone poems and symphonies in particular embody the capacity for a profound range of dynamics and emotional expressions. As if that mastery was somehow embedded in the soil of Hämeenlinna and made its sojourn south to Hyvinkää, Ville Pallonen has proven himself a worthy inheritor, and in “Reign in Supreme Darkness”, has skillfully conjugated all the fragmentary grammars of “Netherstorm” into a true FInlandia opus. 

The opening fantasia “Et In Profundis Mysteriis” opera is a dark and brooding conjuration of the dark depths of glacial striations - a fitting portrait of this land of the icy waters of the Suomi-neito. The energy built in this introduction moves furiously into “The Glory of Eternal Night”, which capitalizes on all the blizzard-borne fury of “Netherstorm”, and ushers in an album of unrelenting hibernal glory. The moods here are cyclothymic and ubiquitously intense - the raw, bruising entry of “As The Shadows Grow Silent” brings the pace down slightly only to be reinvigorated in the triumphal “Crowned by Demonstorms”. The closing track, “Arcane Stargazer”, is sorrowful and more deeply pensive than its predecessors - a lone trek into the taiga to commune with constellations and wolves, away from all torchlight and hearths, a solitary soul against a frost-rimed night sky. 

“Reign in Supreme Darkness” is a dark and blossoming crystallization of all the threat and wonder of “Netherstorm” - a full opera, a syncretic and well-realized symphony. The Silence of Järvenpää is ended thereby - the blood of Väinämöinen rises true and strong here. Recommended without reservation.


Vaka vanha Väinämöinen
itse tuon sanoiksi virkki:
"Näistäpä toki tulisi
kalanluinen kanteloinen,
kun oisi osoajata,
soiton luisen laatijata."
Kun ei toista tullutkana,
ei ollut osoajata,
soiton luisen laatijata,
vaka vanha Väinämöinen
itse loihe laatijaksi,
tekijäksi teentelihe


“Reign In Supreme Darkness” is available HERE



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