It doesn’t take any expert of metal music to know that atmospheric black metal has a firm grip upon a vast territory of all that black metal encompasses, and it’s not likely to go anywhere any time soon. The deeper you go, though, the weirder things tend to be, much like any style of your choosing, but there are territories that few dare to explore with atmospheric black metal where things can become just as inviting as menacing. It’s not uncommon to see the atmospheric tendencies give way so that we’re left with something closer to the world of ambient more than anything else, and there are those that manage to take it a step further. At the Altar of the Horned God came around three years ago to show us how it can be done in a spectacular fashion, but it’s with the follow-up that we see the concept taken incredibly close to what can only be felt as perfection.

Atmosphere is one thing. It is another entirely to then take a right turn somewhere in that process and find your music closer in parts to what can only be likened to ritualistic in its nature and rhtyhms. Such material is a rare sight in the world of extreme metal let alone black metal, but there are always a few audacious souls out there that dare to traverse such territory to bring us unique performances. At the Altar of the Horned God more than fit that bill with its debut album really showing us how it could be done with few bands along the lines of Khanus able to come anywhere close to matching that energy, but it is with all that’s been brought to the table for “Heart of Silence” that the bar has undeniably been raised. Enhancing all the elements that were delivered in that bold debut, it’s in the eight tracks of this potent creation that we see At the Altar of the Horned God deliver a striking performance that fires on all cylinders that taps so well into the world of black metal while still having a tremendous ritualistic factor in its melodies and instrumentation that the one-man act effortlessly touches upon the primal senses. The deepest parts of the psyche feel as though they’ve been awoken after millennia in hibernation with extremely few things in this modern era able to unleash that raw instinct so that it comes to the surface once more, and it’s virtually every moment of “Heart of Silence” that we see those sensations brought forth in heaping quantity.

Darkly gorgeous and magnificently captivating from that first minute, At the Altar of the Horned God has not just honed its sound for this creation, but allowed it to evolve into a beast almost unrecognizable from its previous form and all that more stunning because of it. The very spirits of the night dance at the sounding of “Heart of Silence”, and I can only implore you to join them in their dance as At the Altar of the Horned God does nothing short of deliver a true spectacle of all kinds for all the senses.

“Heart of Silence” releases on March 3rd via I, Voidhanger Records!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “Heart of Silence” on Bandcamp here.