To see an album of this style find itself wrapped in nature is far from something that should be considered new by any and all accounts. It’s a trend in the world of black metal that some are surely getting tired of, but I find it’s just too good of a fit to do away with it by any means. Saarkoth is far from the last act that we’ll see take on the concept, and it’s with their fresh effort that they bring to light yet another work that does it justice.

To break down the vast number of bands that take on the nature theme into a dichotomy would be to greatly generalize the various bands that take it on, but I’m still going to try in all of my foolishness. It tends to be that the theme breaks the bands into two distinct groups: such that are more of a traditional black metal approach and those that add a ton of melodic elements along with much more, but it’s truly the best acts that straddle that line and do so without much fuss whatsoever. It was at first into “Cult of Nature” that I figured that Saarkoth had taken the former of the two but it was more so later on that the band quickly proves themselves to be an act that walks that line in a way that is no less exemplary as Saakoth shows us great ingenuity and notable quality in every song that helps make this eight-track effort something to really sink your teeth into. Far from anything new, of course, but that doesn’t take away a single ounce of what’s been done here for it is not a shred less impactful than many of the contemporary acts that make up the planet’s worth of bands that inhabit the scene. Regardless, what’s been done throughout the entirety of “Cult of Nature” is more than worthy of being considered a more than interesting name in an overflowing scene.

Just being able to barely stand out from the mass crowd of any scene is more than enough to catch my attention, and the fact that it’s done well here makes it even better for what Saarkoth has accomplished in this record. It’s something that we are far from not used to hearing by any means, but what’s been done throughout “Cult of Nature” has the fingerprints of genius all over it and Saarkoth is a name that I can’t help but feel we’ll be seeing more of in the future.

LISTEN to “Cult of Nature” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Saarkoth on Facebook here.