{"product_id":"vargrav-the-nighthold-lp","title":"VARGRAV - The Nighthold LP","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the dawn of the classic debut album, Netherstorm, in 2018, Finland's VARGRAV have almost single-handedly reinvigorated the oft-maligned symphonic black metal subgenre. Forged in fires from the ancients - founder V-Khaoz's credentials are vast and stretch back decades - and stoking the embers last left by Obtained Enslavement and Norway's Covenant and Odium, VARGRAV's two albums to date stand as proud pillars of shimmering, classics-based obsidian.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs momentous as those two full-lengths have been, VARGRAV arguably eclipse both with their third album, The Nighthold. With a lineup that now includes the notorious Graf Werwolf von Armageddon on vocals and Moonsorrow members Trollhorn of the Black Harvest on guitars\/bass and Baron M. Tarwonen on drums, VARGRAV's swirling, cosmic surge has never been more potent; their attack is both sharper and dreamier, crystal-clear and opaque simultaneously. That added clarity creates more immediacy as The Nighthold kicks in, for the aggression of old is kicked into overdrive here and the synths take on a truly orchestral aspect. It's not for nothing that the album is a full hour in length: everything here sounds (and feels) HUGE, one massive velvety purple landscape of stained-glass visions as far as the third eye can see. And all 12 tracks are threaded together in a plausibly cinematic manner; while each is mighty in its own respective right, VARGRAV sequence every song with artistic flair and high drama, concluding the immersive experience with a daresay-soulful guitar solo during the coda of \"Creator of the True Realm\" that then segues into the nearly-10-minute big-screen instrumental \"Ghostlands.\" What film or filmic realm one enters into (or leaves) is entirely up to the listener...The Nighthold is boundless!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is thus not unjust to liken this achievement to Covenant's classic Nexus Polaris. The second era of VARGRAV has hereby begun with The Nighthold!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antinomian Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57056927875403,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1023\/7994\/6315\/files\/IMG_9698.jpg?v=1776456944","url":"https:\/\/antinomianrecords.com\/products\/vargrav-the-nighthold-lp","provider":"Antinomian Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}