I don’t know about you, but I found 2025 to be an absolute banner year for the darker reaches of doom metal and its many different paths with black-doom in particular having quite a lot to boast about. We bore witness to the rise and return of numerous names in the genre that allowed the sound to prosper like it hasn’t in far too long, and it saddened me to be damn near certain that 2026 would not hold up. However, that doesn’t mean the sound wouldn’t be able to offer us something that could still keep us enamored with what it can still be in the right hands. We need only to give it time. With the arrival of the debut album from Northern Graves, it’s obvious that our patience has awarded us with a true spectacle without it even being that far into the year.

When taken into proper consideration and given the right amount of space to breathe, doom metal can effortlessly become something that people instantly become fascinated with no matter what other genre is brought to the table, if any. Black metal can easily be an opposing force given what doom metal can offer listeners in its many forms, but when tempered with a masterful eye and precision that’s downright surgical in its precision? That’s a recipe for greatness the likes of which we rarely get to dig our teeth into. Pulling from their previous experience in other bands to make for a truly potent and intoxicating blend of blackened doom metal that’s as evocative as it is eviscerating, Northern Graves unleashes a singularly powerful creation with everything that came together for “Derelict Heart”. Captivating in its beauty and unimaginably deep in how it communes with the darkest pits of the soul, all throughout this gorgeous record are we treated to a masterful juxtaposition of raw suffering and calculated heaviness brought together in such a form that can be tear-inducing. The very expanse of Northern Graves’s home plays a key role in ensuring the scope, emotion, and terror of this creation comes to life with such vigor and power in a way that leaves you begging for more by the time “Derelict Heart” comes to a close. Taking its time to explore all that it has to offer, the rains and sorrows of what Northern Graves brings to the table here are nothing short of some of the finest work of this particular variety of doom that I’ve become lost within for quite some time.

Last year showed us that there were many ways to offer us a union of black and doom metal, and it’s here that Northern Graves teaches us yet another lesson as to how it can be done to perfection without missing so much as a beat, seizing every opportunity, and making damn sure that the listener feels every iota of power that there is to be had. “Derelict Heart” could have just been the first tentative steps of a new name. Rather, this is a captivating entrance the likes of which always has me salivating for more.

LISTEN to “Derelict Heart” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Northern Graves on Facebook here.

FOLLOW Northern Graves on Instagram here.