Vonülfsrëich ‎"Northern Shamanism" CD

Drums recorded in Oulu, May 2013 (sound engineering by HELLARISER). The rest of the instruments recorded in the woods of Taivalkoski, June 2013. Mixed and mastered in NO FUN HOUSE.

YONÜLF: drums, vox, guitar, bass, ambience
FOGG: vox, guitar, bass, ambience

First Vonülfsrëich release from 2013 (originally self released and limited to 100 copies) is now re-issued! Raw Finnish Black Metal! Jewelcase CD re-released by Fallen Temple. 

The Oulu, Finland based band Vonülfsrëich was formed by Fogg in 2012. In the early days Fogg was joined by bass player and vocalist Lempo, who passed away in 2015. However, the band’s very first EP was released in 2013 by just Fogg and was titled ‘Northern Shamanism’. And it’s this EP that has been re-released by the band’s current label Fallen Temple on CD in early 2021. On the very first recording Vonülfsrëich plays raw, straightforward Black Metal, much in the vein of early Darkthrone and their Norwegian comrades. Even the vocals are quite like those of Nocturno Culto. The band does add slightly more epic Pagan sounding riffs, in particular in ‘Gateway (By the Hill’s Eternal Eye)’ and the closing title track. The other tracks ‘New-born Wolf of the Underworld’ and ‘Black Metamorphosis – Deerhorn Trance’ are about as old school as they get, with fairly simple, very bass driven raw Black Metal. Well, if you’re willing to overlook an occasional Thrash Metal riff and the Slayer-esque solo at the end of ‘New-born Wolf of the Underworld’. The pretty clear sound and leading riffs of the bass add an interesting touch though, and in ‘Black Metamorphosis – Deerhorn Trance’ sounds like a track that was inspired by Motörhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’. And especially in the song ‘Northern Shamanism’ the bass takes quite a leading role at times. That song clocks in at over 11 minutes and takes up nearly half of the EP length, although the last six minutes or so are mostly a bass rumbling outro. With a slight Pagan touch and an above average contribution of the bass, the first EP of Vonülfsrëich is a little bit more than the average raw Norwegian sounding Black Metal debut demo or EP. Probably not the stuff of legends, but considering that new material of the band is imminent, one can see the reason to re-release this material to make it available to those that weren’t the lucky few that managed to obtain an original hand-crafted CD-R copy of the EP.

Sample: