France's Darkenhold have returned with a new recording which continues the medieval style of black metal from previous releases and this is a review of their 2020 album "Arcanes & Sortileges" which will be released in November by Les Acteurs de L' Ombre Productions.
A very fast and raw sound starts off the album along with a great amount of blast beats and tremolo picking while the vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams. Throughout the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts and keyboards are also mixed into the heavier sections of the songs at times.
The music also has its atmospheric moments while clean playing, acoustic guitars and whispered vocals are also added on some of the tracks. When guitar solos and leads are utilized they are also done in a very melodic style along with some spoken word parts also being used briefly, clear vocals can also be heard in certain sections of the recording.
Some of the tracks are also very long and epic in length along with the music also adding in a decent amount of 90's influences as well as all of the musical instruments on the recording have a very powerful sound to them, when folk music elements are utilized they also enhance the medieval atmosphere of the music and the album also closes with an instrumental. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics are written in French and cover castles, fantasy and medieval themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Darkenhold and if you are a fan of medieval black metal, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Oriflamme" "Incantations" and "Le Bestiare Fantastigue". 8 out of 10.
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