Orgrel "The Oath Of The Black Wolf" CD Digipack

6 panel digipak limited to 300 copies.

During the autumn of 2021, ORGREL proved that the past was still alive with their debut album, Red Dragon's Invocation, for IRON BONEHEAD. A band literally out of time, the Italian power-trio hailed the ancient days of black metal - the days too often forgotten, in the late '90s, when labels like Solistitium, Sombre, and Drakkar began releasing obsidian gems during the genre's post-sensationalism fallout. Rich with righteous fury and triumph alike, Red Dragon's Invocation synthesized mystical splendor and dizzying delirium into a full-length treatise on those too-often-forgotten days, engrossing the listener to the very last: indeed, the album was summarily titled.

Building upon that grand fortress is a four-song/22-minute mini-album likewise truly titled: The Oath of the Black Wolf. Here, ORGREL have gone a-hunting, their '90s black metal classicism stalking and striking with a hunger only hinted at previously. Still, fueled by this fire they may be, the Italians across this mini manage to maximize their epic side, with the predecessor's flat-yet-full soundfield now becoming slightly more chromatic in the process. Lead lines portend dark truths, ever building in tension and then grandeur, but the record's swift-yet-satisfying runtime reveals the darkest, most intrinsic truth: black metal doesn't need to "become" anything when it already IS. Hail The Oath of the Black Wolf!

Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=xS7eabXG1Fw