#dimmuborgir — Public Fediverse posts

After reviewing Crotaline1 in April and Dimmu Borgir’s Grand Serpent Rising earlier this month, 2026 is shaping up as the Year of the Snake—at least for me. Now at the end of May, Battleground, Washington’s Serpent Lord emerges from a protracted brumation to deliver a dose of venom fermenting for over twenty years. After recording a split and two demos between 2003 and 2004, one-man band Jake Superchi (Uada, Ceremonial Castings) shelved the project for a couple decades. Now Superchi has resurrected his defunct sobriquet to record The Once Forgotten Ways of Old, Serpent Lord’s long-gestating debut LP. After an extended incubation period, does Serpent Lord rejuvenate the Ways of Old, or should the act have remained Forgotten?

Like Uada, Serpent Lord falls under the broader umbrella of black metal. Rather than expansive meloblack, though, Serpent Lord basks in the light of pagan gods, eliciting forlorn calls to umbral deities scoured from memory by the winds of time. Rhythmic grooves and hypnotic guitar refrains lay the foundation for The Once Forgotten Ways of Old, imbuing the album with enough ritualistic zest that you may catch faint whiffs of incense and petrichor while listening. Three of the album’s six songs push past the eight-minute mark, and it’s these moments where Serpent Lord best embodies heathen incantations. In particular, “Aries Ram” and the title track conjure visions of enigmatic and arcane rites, evoking mystical practices that lurch and brood in the dark.

On The Once Forgotten Ways of Old, Serpent Lord summons inspirations and reshapes them into a well-developed and distinct character. Most immediately, Serpent Lord reminds me of Rauhnåcht without the folk instrumentation, particularly when the slower, plaintive guitar leads slither above swirling riffs and unyielding drums (“A Pagan’s Spell,” “Enter Serpentagram”). Superchi’s vocals cover an array of deliveries, ranging from frenetic, blackened barking and rasping (“Constrictor”) to droning harangue, where the latter strikes similarities to Mayhem’s Attila Csihar’s cleaner stylings (“The Once Forgotten Ways of Old”). The sermonizing works well, but the harsher vocals occasionally blur with the cascading guitars in the mix, obscuring Superchi’s voice and packing too much sound into too narrow a band. The harsh deliveries work better when there’s room to breathe, like the back half of “Forever on the Grounds of Battle” (which features guitar work recalling Alice in Chains’ “Whale & Wasp” midway through). Regardless, the star performances belong to the guitars and drums, which pack a potent, two-pronged punch as they wend and weave through The Once Forgotten Ways of Old.

For all that Serpent Lord achieves, The Once Forgotten Ways of Old proves a slippery and elusive beast. Despite the many things done well, I struggle to remember most of it once the music fades from my speakers, and the snippets that stick drive me back to the inspirations more than the Ways of Old. Serpent Lord nails the aesthetic of pagan black metal, and The Once Forgotten Ways of Old is a record I feel like should resonate more than it does. What ultimately undercuts Serpent Lord’s success is the lack of fulfilling climaxes.2 Superchi does a fabulous job of orchestrating tension through the give and take of guitars and drums, yet few moments capitalize on that buildup. This songwriting oversight is most telling at the ends of tracks, as four of the album’s six songs close with a fade. Concluding a song this way isn’t one of my pet peeves, and I typically don’t notice them, but their abundance here stands out and suggests the opportunity to finish with a bang every now and again.

The Once Forgotten Ways of Old convinces me that Serpent Lord seethes with potential, but will need to shed its current approach to actualize it. I spent a lot of time traversing The Once Forgotten Ways of Old, and while I enjoyed them, I recognize the album doesn’t offer enough for me to return once the proverbial ink dries on this review. Even so, a few minor tweaks would rid this danger noodle of musical impotence, and I look forward to listening to Serpent Lord’s next worship service if and when it comes.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Eisenwald Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: May 29th, 2026

In the metalverse, there are plenty of unique personas, and now we can count Valira Pietrangelo among them. She has been very open in interviews about suffering from identity dysphoria. As a result, she dove into making music and eventually discovered herself as a demon.1 What better way to express your newfound demonhood than through black metal? Everything about Vesseles (pronounced veh-sel-is) revolves around Pietrangelo’s identity. The band’s name is a Latinized version of the word vessel, as in her body being a vessel containing an identity that doesn’t quite fit. In 2024, Vesseles released their debut EP, not-so-subtly titled I Am a Demon, about her inner struggles and coming out as a demon. Now with Home, Vesseles takes a more ambitious approach as Pietrangelo expands her songwriting repertoire.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise with a demon at the helm, but Home sounds sinister as hell. With a cinematic flair, Vesseles shares some similarities with the darker symphonic metal of Dimmu Borgir and SepticFlesh, yet they play with a dissonance and malevolence that draws closer comparisons to Hasard. Like with Hasard, guitars play second fiddle to the haunting strings and off-key piano notes. Joel Ferry’s demonic rasps, harsh and high, ooze hatred and venom, while the constant tempo shifts serve to keep listeners off-balance. Home is a concept album about a demon cast from one world she didn’t belong to and into another she’s not wanted. Pietrangelo entangles us in her character’s emotional state, making us feel her rage and malice through the challenging music. She may have succeeded in her approach a little too well—while I appreciate her vision, it can be difficult to enjoy at times.

Home by Vesseles

Home contains some impressive musical passages, and yet the overall style becomes taxing over time. As a result, the front half is much more effective than the back half. Opener “Flesh Throne” establishes a menacing atmosphere with its string compositions, but it’s the piano that steals the show. The dissonant piano and icy riffs on “The Beneath” create an appropriately malevolent atmosphere that’s sure to send shivers down your spine. “Home” opens with a classical-sounding, off-key piano segment that’s moving in its evil intent. “Home” is also where the record’s approach begins to falter and grate—the noisiness and constant tonal shifts take their toll over the span of a too-long six minutes. This comes to a head on the final two tracks, the weakest on Home. “Perpetual Chasm of Black Mirrors” in particular lacks the bits of brilliance of the rest of Home, and the finale, “This Is Not Home,” drags on for too long. The constant shifts—in tempo, volume, and noise levels—grow challenging to tolerate for long periods.

Ultimately, what holds Home back is the production. Vesseles suffers the same issue as Hasard’s debut—their record is just too loud. My poor ears could only take so much, and headphones only compounded the issue. There’s a moment on “Scriptures Etched Into the Mind’s Pillars” where the guitars and rasps become muted in favor of a nice string and drum segment, and I found myself breathing a sigh of relief as my ears were given a brief reprieve from the aural assault. The crushed compression also hurts the instrumentally busier passages; I found it difficult in these moments to appreciate individual performances or make out what’s going on. On one hand, this contributes to the chaotic, unsettling tone that Vesseles appears to be aiming for, but it ultimately mars some impressive songwriting.

Home is simultaneously a remarkable debut and an intolerable one. Pietrangelo successfully carries out her unsettling vision in crafting a sinister tone through complex compositions. Yet the bogeyman of poor mastering hampers her vision. Despite this, the first half of Home is quite strong and took me fondly back to my time reviewing Hasard’s Abgnose. One can only hope that she learns the same lessons Hasard did, as Abgnose’s production was a huge improvement over the debut. I have faith that this demon can wow us with her unique vision yet again, and I look forward to hearing it.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: vesseles.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/vesseles
Releases Worldwide: January 16th, 2026