Finland and black metal goes hand in hand that much is certain. Their love for the occult and satanism has been known far and wide with bands such as Beherit, Horna and Baptism leading the way for many years. Enter the new blood, a band who will carry the torch, Aethyrick. Formed by Gall and Exile on the winter solstice of 2016 the band has been quite productive in spreading their ways of the occult to the masses with two demo albums and a full-length released prior to their latest offering Gnosis.

With great songwriting and incredible guitar play Gnosis gets me hook, line and sinker already on the first track “Will Embodied”. It’s mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful. It’s basically a lovesong where Finnish black metal meets the Icelandic counterpart and the end result is wonderful. The follow-up “Oneiric Portals” keeps the same quality and mysticism flair to it just as well. Then the third song “Stellar Flash” changes it up with more synths and change of vocal sounds, being even more of the shrieking kind a la Ghost Bath. I personally wasn’t a big fan of this and the vocals put me off quite a bit, as did the synths where I thought they overused here. It quickly put itself back up though when “Your Mysteries” comes on where once again the melodic guitar tone shines brightly pushing the album forward. “Blood Acre” then crushes everything where the introduction of a killer guitar solo sets the pace and never let you go. The atmosphere, energy and emotions here is exactly what I hope Aethyrick brings on each song. The closing songs “Anointed Bones” and “Golden Suffering” are great additions that follows it up well as the album ends on a high note. In fact I would say the last three songs on the album stands out from the rest and if you’re in a rush I would say pick one of those three songs to see if Aethyrick is for you.

While I thought Praxis was a solid debut Aethyrick takes it to a whole new level with Gnosis. Not only with the songwriting but the guitar tone is a massive improvement to me, the use of keyboards is better utilized too, as is the production. Hell I might just say everything has turned to the better (except me not liking “Stellar Flash”), it’s simply a matter of a band that’s taken these two years to jell together as a duo and work hard to reach their goals and it shows. There are still things to work on but they’ve used the time wisely and if Aethyrick keeps this up the more seasoned bands from Finland will have to watch out because there is a new sinister flame coming in hot.

Artist: Aethyrick

Label: The Sinister Flame

For fans of: Cult of Fire & Svartidauði

Release date: January 24th, 2020

Favorite song: Blood Acre

Score: 4/5 Excellent