||  Artist......: Wolves' Winter                                     ||
||  Album.......: The Medivm                                         ||
||  Year........: 2024                                               ||

||  Genre.......: Black Metal                                        ||
||  Label.......: Northern Silence Productions                       ||

||  Source......: WEB (16bit)                                        ||
||  Encoder.....: libFLAC                                            ||
||  Bitrate.....: 1029kbps avg.                                      ||
||  F.Rate......: 44.1kHz                                            ||

||  Playtime....: 00:40:09 / 311.52MB                                ||
||  R.Date......: 2024-10-06                                         ||
||  S.Date......: 2024-10-04                                         ||
||  Website.....: http://play.qobuz.com/album/c1wc2wrryi9ua          ||

||  01. Paradoxical Fullness of Nothingness                 3:09     ||
||  02. Levitation of the Buried Ones                       4:25     ||
||  03. Bornless & Deathless                                4:44     ||
||  04. The Medivm                                          4:05     ||
||  05. Flame of Ghosts                                     4:38     ||
||  06. The Omen                                            4:48     ||
||  07. Calling from Beyond                                 5:10     ||
||  08. Black Light of Qalmana                              3:44     ||
||  09. VOID                                                5:26     ||

||  A rabid curse in praise of blackest light cast upon the          ||
||  trembling fields of old and dried sacrificial blood this         ||
||  sophomore full-length album from Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos       ||
||  Aires, Argentina-based black metal quintet WOLVES’ WINTER turns  ||
||  away, out of sight of the face of God, seeking solace from       ||
||  heinous carnal disquietude. Developing personage over the        ||
||  course of a decade and a half without compromising the           ||
||  integrity of their original thought these fellowes retain a      ||
||  high standard for raw, melodious, and occult-spiritualized       ||
||  black metal on ‘The Medivm‘. Though still clearly hinging their  ||
||  central voicing on the innovations of the last two decades of    ||
||  Finnish black metal classicism these fellowes are yet capable    ||
||  of wild strikes, of dark atmosphere and hall-reaping             ||
||  dread-tones which inspire and illuminate their occult-sighted    ||
||  drive.                                                           ||

||  Wolves’ Winter was formed in the 2008 by Beelzebuth Nazgul       ||
||  alongside original bassist Cabra Phobos as various early         ||
||  lineups would produce a series of demos and rehearsals inspired  ||
||  by Finnish black metal (Sargeist, Behexen, et al.) as well as    ||
||  groups who’d fuse fluid melodicism with harshened craft          ||
||  (Arckanum, Beastcraft) to start. Around 2011-2012 they’d more    ||
||  or less felt readied to attempt a full-length and alluded to     ||
||  this in interviews but things never went further than a          ||
||  compilation of early material (‘Lycanthropus Legionis‘, 2011)    ||
||  and a fairly raw rehearsal demo a year later. If you have been   ||
||  impressed with the work they’ve released post-2018 and are       ||
||  searching for value in old precedence the original version of    ||
||  the well-received ‘Spell of Necromancy‘ demo from 2011 is still  ||
||  worth your time, even if it wasn’t a complete thought compared   ||
||  to their later standards; With a more solidified and dependable  ||
||  lineup achieved by 2016 we’d ultimately get the matured          ||
||  realization of the band’s intent by 2018 with the brilliant      ||
||  ‘Necrosophic Illumination‘ EP where the core three original      ||
||  songs on that CD featured haunting choral exaggerations,         ||
||  sweeping melodic rhythm guitar work and their most palpably      ||
||  inspired performances to date. The ‘Spell of Necromancy‘ demo    ||
||  was also fully re-recorded and released soon after, a worthy     ||
||  recreation of their Satanic Warmaster inspired early days with   ||
||  a surprisingly ‘clean’ production value applied.                 ||

||  The years between and the time spent toiling toward a            ||
||  high-standard presentation and authorship were of course         ||
||  worthwhile as Wolves’ Winter might’ve taken ~ten years longer    ||
||  than expected to produce their debut full-length album (‘Qayin   ||
||  Coronatvs‘, 2021) but it was well worth the strong foundation    ||
||  achieved. Considering the years of development that first        ||
||  record was essentially making good on the promise lodged in      ||
||  mind for a decade of persistence and as such it reflected both   ||
||  where they were at the time as well as the best ideas they’d     ||
||  dragged along with, complimenting their first two EPs in a       ||
||  direct way. When setting any expectations for what ‘The Medivm‘  ||
||  is this is of course vital provenance, an album with clear and   ||
||  bristling presence with inspiration taken from the early 2000’s  ||
||  at its core and revised up to the standards for cutting          ||
||  melodicism achieved in the 2010’s with Finnish black metal       ||
||  being the main bar set for fidelity and composition. That said,  ||
||  they’ve launched this record with that experience behind them    ||
||  as reinforcing values rather than a template for what comes      ||
||  next.                                                            ||

||  Their cult of Death emboldens at the end of days. The occult     ||
||  themes inherent to the lyrical propositions put forth by         ||
||  Wolves’ Winter appear more clearly stated by 2021 with a focus   ||
||  seemingly related to gnostic and/or blasphemic interpretation    ||
||  of dark figures in Judeo-Christian theology which are of course  ||
||  relevant to Satanic (or, Luciferian) ritual and death worship    ||
||  in general. Without knowing or elaborating upon any of the dark  ||
||  esoterica and spiritual wrath down to each lyrics here I would   ||
||  suggest most listeners will find their point of obsession via    ||
||  this album’s more melodic riff-based formae herein rather than   ||
||  the themes outlined. There are roughly five pieces on the full   ||
||  spin through ‘The Medivm‘ which immediately and thoroughly       ||
||  strike into inspired and encompassing themes, be they anthem or  ||
||  draining ode, which are driven by ear worming dual guitar        ||
||  forged melodies. Though the album opens in dramatic fashion      ||
||  between its howling salvo (“The Paradoxical Fullness of          ||
||  Nothingness”) and the 90’s-anthemic spire of “Levitation of the  ||
||  Buried Ones” we don’t fully dive into the thrilling rhythmic     ||
||  pocket of this album until the grinding strum of “Bornless &     ||
||  Deathless” eventually cracks open the doorway. Around ~2:05      ||
||  minutes into the piece a surprising shift into what I’d          ||
||  consider a riff progression more likely to be found in Hellenic  ||
||  black metal throwback acts, subtle as this type of distinction   ||
||  might appear to start these unexpected moments (however          ||
||  borrowed they sometimes appear) begin to accumulate into an      ||
||  engaging and volatile experience song after song.                ||

||  Lightless and scaling their menace outward into a bleakest       ||
||  realm the songs that’d most readily caught and held my ear on    ||
||  the full listen arrived around the mid-point of ‘The Medivm‘ as  ||
||  “Flame of Ghosts” a certain headier era of Sargeist as it’d      ||
||  developed with some declarative vocalizations and a few classic  ||
||  Norse-leveled verse riffs used for basic effect, a simple        ||
||  enough song but to great effect. “Calling From Beyond” is        ||
||  probably the one piece to stain the mind most completely beyond  ||
||  “Bornless & Deathless” with its brisk rate of fire and           ||
||  circuitous tasking through its core melody, the strength and     ||
||  the core function of Wolves’ Winter‘s whole gig and where they   ||
||  do it best from my point of view. Of course my preference is     ||
||  additionally persuaded by a bass guitar driven transition with   ||
||  admirably set flourish and an overall most dynamic showing as    ||
||  the piece develops its ardor in the space of about five          ||
||  minutes. The remainder of Side B is no less inspired though      ||
||  “Calling From Beyond” was a most common point of inspiration as  ||
||  I’d passed through he album numerous times, pairing it with the  ||
||  anthemic upswing of “Black Light of Qalmana” should serve the    ||
||  most compounding argument for what is most effective about this  ||
||  release as a whole.                                              ||

||  Though there are a couple of less engaging, droning pieces here  ||
||  and there the bulk of ‘The Medivm‘ is engaging, inspired and     ||
||  able to continually renew interest with new elemental shifts     ||
||  and points of fusion with a global interest in a certain         ||
||  quintessence of spiritual black metal attack. That level of      ||
||  well-aware taste is clearly conveyed in some additional sense    ||
||  per the brilliantly detailed album artwork they’ve curated from  ||
||  the mind of artist Fernando Rojas aka Abismo / BlackArts which   ||
||  helps to elevate the experience per the fantastical nightside    ||
||  necromantical scene in progress. A scathingly rough but still    ||
||  clear enough render ensures the experience is both clear in its  ||
||  point of inspiration and additive to said tradition. Though we   ||
||  cannot necessarily suggest Wolves’ Winter is particularly        ||
||  original in the sense that their inspirations have endured       ||
||  quite loudly for a decade and a half there is yet plenty enough  ||
||  value in their version of it per a focus on rousing riffcraft    ||
||  and just enough melodic interest generated to call back for      ||
||  some repeated listening...                                       ||