As someone who has only beheld the majesty of mountains and their surrounding grace a handful of times, there’s something very magical about the aspect of nature that they represent. It’s something that’s very hard to put into words but the one word that always comes to mind is wonder, and there have been many bands to capture pieces of that feeling, but it’s Arête that has delivered the best one yet. Hailing straight from mountains all over the United States, this act has delivered us something memorable.

The be able to imagine the wonder of walking through the mountains to see over the fields on the horizon, see civilization from incredibly high up, and feel the crisp pure wind of the Earth you truly have to be there in person to know it. And like many things in nature that are wonderful and can be hard to put into words, atmospheric black metal acts like Arête are right there to aid us! But it’s with “Hymnal” specifically that we get a beautiful array of mountain glory packed into a single album the likes of which I haven’t seen before. Sure, tons of acts have bewildered me as they’ve encaptured nature as a whole, but Arête brings the spirit of the mountain’s peak right to our ears. Be it through gorgeous acoustic work that breathes life into the leaves on the mountainside, a raw intense black metal that captures the wild nature of these behemoths, or a dazzling display through instruments like a banjo, flute, and more the really nail the beauty that you can only behold by stepping off the path and seeing an astonishing sight over the world that only few others have seen. That’s how monumental “Hymnal” is from beginning to end, and each spin brings another sliver of beauty right to the table. And much like the glory of the mountains, it’s something you have to experience firsthand to truly understand.

Atmospheric black metal has never been short of bands that have tackled the spirit of nature itself to great effect, but it’s the seemingly untamable spirit of the rocky and snowy peaks that Arête has conquered wondrously, and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it! If “Hymnal” is but a peek into the future for Arête and a taste of what’s to come, I can’t fucking wait to see what else these mountain men come up with!

LISTEN to “The Fear and the Void” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Arête on Facebook here.