CD

Mara Comes and Darkness Shall Reign is conceptual opus explores the multifaceted nature of darkness—both internal and cosmic. Musically, it expands the band’s signature style, merging atmospheric black metal with melodic and post-black elements. The result is a richly textured soundscape of haunting beauty, featuring ritualistic passages, soaring melodic solos, and a dynamic interplay of vocal contrasts. With this album, the musicians boldly push genre boundaries, crafting a profound and evocative listening experience that resonates long after the final note fades.

Darkenhöld emerged in 2008 as a trio composed of Aldébaran, Cervantes and Aboth, with the ambition of creating a melodic, epic, atmospheric Black Metal imbued with the spirit of the 90s from which the band has always drawn most of its influences. The band's universe was established from the beginning around a dreamlike medieval imagination, roaming the deep forests, high mountains and mysterious caves of the South-East of France where the band is from. The old stones of fortified castles, fantastic bestiaries, tales and legends, the dense and complex landscapes of the Côte d'Azur are the sources of inspiration for a Black Metal that first stood out with the release of two self-produced split-CDs in 2009, mixing covers with original compositions. Introducing the group's emblematic animal, the Wyvern, and laying the first foundations of its universe, they prepared the ground for the release of a first album, "A passage to the towers...", released in 2010. The group would then release a second album, defended throughout a French tour, before introducing the French language in its third album, "Castellum", which would open new horizons for them. The release in 2017 of their fourth album, "Memoria Sylvarum", released as a self-production, would see the group access larger stages, culminating in a well-received performance at Hellfest in 2018. The year 2020 marked a further step with the signing of the group to the label "Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions" and the release of their fifth album, "Arcanes et Sortilèges".

Los Angeles trio Faetooth sophomore album Labyrinthine is a deeply felt exploration of emotional weight: grief, memory, uncertainty, and the quiet work of growing around your own wounds.

Following the band’s 2022 debut Remnants Of The Vessel, which introduced the band’s signature blend of heaviness and mysticism, Labyrinthine pushes further inward. True to its name, the album winds through a maze of feeling and form, where meaning is never handed over easily. It’s rooted in self-discovery through disorientation, the idea that understanding comes not from escape, but from getting lost.

• Los Angeles-based doom outfit blending shoegaze with crushing heaviness