{"id":24944,"date":"2024-02-13T21:44:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T21:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/13\/album-review-hulder-verses-in-oath\/"},"modified":"2024-02-13T21:44:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T21:44:50","slug":"album-review-hulder-verses-in-oath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/13\/album-review-hulder-verses-in-oath\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: HULDER Verses In Oath"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s new album, <em>Verses in Oath<\/em>, represents a significant progression for the artist, both in terms of songwriting strength and musical cohesion. Upon first hearing it, you&#8217;re struck by how much energy and atmosphere is packed into its 10 tracks, but also how well-produced it sounds. It probably represents the upper limit for how full and clear a record can sound while still retaining the spirit of raw black metal \u2014 or Dark Medieval Black Metal as she calls it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-versus\">\n<p><versus-widget x-type=\"inline\" x-id=\"7531ec27-8a79-4b18-a301-e7e5c3355ed2\">Please enable Javascript to view this content<\/versus-widget><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After a brief intro track, you arrive at &#8220;Boughs Ablaze&#8221; and can immediately sense <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong> picking up where she left off from her 2022 EP, <em>The Eternal Fanfare<\/em>. The same stylistic markers from that and her first album are still here, but there&#8217;s a thunderous quality to the guitar and bass sounds that gives the music a distinctly &#8220;low&#8221; feeling, almost resembling the sound of bands like <strong>Aeternus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s vocal delivery has reached a consistently growl, blending with the music perfectly, and sustaining a level of confidence that wasn&#8217;t fully developed in her demo era. And the writing is just more compelling and effective than on the EP, a sign that more time and care was given to everything here.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe title=\"Hulder - Hearken the End (Official Music Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bajKrXRTQCo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Have you ever wanted to waltz to a black metal song (in the pale moonlight)? Well, then you&#8217;re in luck with the 7+ minute opus that is &#8220;Hearken The End.&#8221; All of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s strengths are on display here, most notably her subtle blending of keyboards into the mix. While other bands tend to make synths the central narrative feature of these songs, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong> uses it in a delicate way that draws the listener in and encourages a deeper level of attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, this is true of faster numbers like the title track and &#8220;Vessel Of Suffering,&#8221; songs which show an adept blending of <em>DMDS<\/em>-era <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/mayhem\">Mayhem<\/a><\/strong>, <em>Nemesis Divina<\/em>-era <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/satyricon\">Satyricon<\/a><\/strong>, and <em>Svartalvheim<\/em>-era <strong>Ancient<\/strong> \u2014 all coming together to form an enchanting combination. Of course, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong> adds her own haunting touches to the guitar melodies that mark out a style all her own. This is especially true on the fist-pumping march of &#8220;Cast Into The Well Of Remembrance.&#8221; Having seen <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong> and her live co-conspirators perform in concert, I can confirm that this will be an amazing song to witness on stage.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe title=\"HULDER - Vessel Of Suffering (From &#039;Verses In Oath&#039; LP, 2024)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5tE1ptoX1Wo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>By the time you reach &#8220;Enchanted Steel&#8221; and &#8220;Veil Of Penitence,&#8221; the shape and texture of the album&#8217;s sonic landscape has become clear and recognizable. Listeners who are less excited about this style of metal would probably say it becomes &#8220;repetitive&#8221; at this point. And maybe that&#8217;s true, but there&#8217;s still plenty of worthwhile moments to be had, like the isolated guitar section at 2:20 on &#8220;Enchanted Steel&#8221; and the sheer power of drummer <strong>CK<\/strong>&#8216;s double-kick pedals on the final track.<\/p>\n<p>For fans of black metal that don&#8217;t want something quite as raw as the LLN bands or quite as slick as some of the bigger acts, <em>Verses In Oath <\/em>has everything. It shows a good mix of tempos and moods, and allows multiple instruments to shine in their own way. Like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/tag\/hulder\">Hulder<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s amazing debut, <em>Godlastering<\/em>, it has aggression, atmosphere, mystery and malevolence \u2014 all in equal measure. Believe the hype, it will be difficult to top this album for black metal in 2024.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/metalinjection.net\/reviews\/album-review-hulder-verses-in-oath\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hulder&#8216;s new album, Verses in Oath, represents a significant progression for the artist, both in terms of songwriting strength and musical cohesion. Upon first hearing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}