This is a really interesting release to say the least. Velnias have been crafting what they call, ‘Oppressive Rocky Mountain Dirge’ for well over a decade and have had a continual place on my radar. This upcoming release though, Scion Of Aether (Eisenwald) seems to be something else, something greater. The band has managed to fuse their progressive tendencies with post-black metal in order to craft something transcendent and powerful. This record leaps from peak to peak and seems to continually prove that this band is one of a kind.

I think the sheer breadth of the compositions is really worth noting here. This is a band that took a few core elements (Black metal, prog) and fused them into something pretty magical. It’s hard not to be enamored with an approach that is as broad and clear in vision as this one. Scion Of Aether routinely impresses because of the scope of the work. As it dazzles across six track and fifty minutes, there are layers upon layers you can pick apart. I sit here a few listens in all the more enamored with a band who I always thought had a ton of potential. This record on Eisenwald though seems to be something even greater. Their approach borders on the transcendent and is the sort of thing you can repeatedly get lost in.

Scion Of Aether is thrilling and over the top. It is a record that you are going to come back to time and time again because the sheer skill the band have and the way that they so eagerly embrace new elements is truly exciting. This is an album that not only succeeds from a songwriting perspective but also a conceptual one. It sees Velnias taking their work to a whole new level, sheperded by their best production to date and the many years that went into crafting this beautiful offering. If you like modern black metal – what do you have to lose?

8 / 10

MATT BACON