Every year always has a few surprises in its waning moments. Whether it’s a large band making the cut before the new year to make for a splendid creation the likes of which are expected from such talent or an underground act coming out of nowhere to surprise and impress, there’s always at least one effort. Personally, the latter has been quite consistent as you never know what’s going to show up on your radar and really catch you off-guard. As if to prove my point, it’s with their brand new creation that the authentic pagan black metal act of Dewfall ensures the style closes 2024 on an exceedingly high note.

In a sound such as pagan black metal, it can be all too often that there are bands that come around that offer something more akin to what Selvans accomplishes: exceedingly folky, more than a little weird, but nonetheless interesting if you can get into such an effort. Meanwhile, it’s the dark, dreary creations backed by a slew of unique instruments to make the already-potent black metal stand out in more than a few ways that manage to make the waves and get peoples’ attention for all the right reasons, and Dewfall is absolutely one of those miracles of the night. Weaving a tale of a long-forgotten myth during the darkest historical period of Dewfall’s homeland, “Landhaskur” has so much going for it in every single given track. Far from just a collection with riffs that are backed by little more than a production quality that can only be described as drab, Dewfall seizing every possible opportunity in making this record a dynamic creation that never once allows you to anticipate what’s to come next whether it’s riffs, a valiant display of impressive vocals, a belt of folk instrumentation that are simply nigh-on intoxicating, or some combination of it all, “Landhaskur” is a work that holds nothing back nor does it leave anything on the table.

There are incredibly few acts in all of this kind of black metal that are able to bring forth such rich flavor and awesome personality like what we see here with it only ever being a handful of time at most in any given year that are able to deliver the sound on an undeniably high level. With everything that has been summoned to bring “Landhaskur” to life, Dewfall has accomplished that and more.

LISTEN to “Landhaskur” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Dewfall on Facebook here.