One of the most intriguing bands from the South American dungeon black metal scene; long-time friends of the channel, and immortal majesters of the undead, Wampyric Rites have unveiled their latest album in full, and like the moon of the cover, everything its light touches turns to a contorted rageous feral beast, submitting to its most primal urges!
When I featured a single from this album in July, I said this is a band that keep delivering and growing in strength with each release – and now you may all share in their latest nocturnal reckoning of primal, elevated vampyric black metal.
The mighty Signal Rex are ushering forth this masterwork of Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague , in CD and cassette formats (vinyl edition in due later in the year), along with shirts and other totems to adorn your frail human flesh.
SIGNAL REX is proud to present WAMPYRIC RITES' highly anticipated second album, The Wolves Howl to the Moon, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats. The CD and tape versions will be released on August 26th while the vinyl version will follow later this year.
WAMPYRIC RITES hail from the ever-rising Ecuadorian black metal underground, and have had a major hand in shaping its prominence and notoriety across countless short-length releases since 2019. However, it was last year's full-length The Eternal Melancholy of the Wampyre where WAMPYRIC RITES displayed the full gait of their potential: classic (and unapologetic) vampiric black metal deeply rooted in the idiom's earliest days whilst evincing a spectral aura all their own. The duo may belong to the Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague, which includes now-labelmates WINTERSTORM and RÜNDGARD, but WAMPYRIC RITES truly had found the cosmic keys to their creations and times.
Eclipsing that feat is their brand-new second album, The Wolves Howl to the Moon. Immediately, the record sounds like WAMPYRIC RITES - shimmering surge, velvety synths, hysteric shrieks across a dungeon deep - but the attack soon takes on deft dynamics, skillfully balancing robust physicality (often, headbangingly straightforward) and stained-glass sensitivity. The latter element is perhaps the boldest move here, as a variety of synth sounds - medieval organ, stargazing swirl, or even just the faintest daubing upon ripped-raw guitar - often play a prominent role in each of the album's five component songs. Yet, it's never done in a gaudy or gimmicky manner; it's but another layer to lose oneself in, as the songwriting itself allows the mind to wander and palpably experience the landscape as The Wolves Howl to the Moon. What's more, WAMPYRIC RITES incorporate shockingly beautiful acoustics, albeit sparingly, making their seemingly strictured canvas far vaster than otherwise suggested by vampiric BM standards.
All told, The Wolves Howl to the Moon sets new standards for (true) vampiric black metal. WAMPYRIC RITES stoke the fires of the imagination, and seemingly are only getting started.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=cWUjJFqDKyQ
