At The Altar Of The Horned God - Through Doors Of Moonlight

This is a masterful one. At The Altar Of The Horned God was conceived as an ode to nature by Heolstor (Mystagos, Alverg) and seems to have only grown from there. This debut offering, Through Doors Of Moonlight is a transcendent and powerful record. It has moment of pure black metal sorcery and odes to wonderfully demonic invocations. At The Altar Of The Horned God seems eager to leap from peak to sonic peak as the band dance Through Doors Of Moonlight to craft black metal that is in depth and beautifully twisted.

At The Altar Of The Horned God is an interesting project because of the groups willingness to embrace both pagan sounds (Prayer II (Oh Glorious Pan)) and the more conventional black metal ideas. The project is of course at its best when Heolstor finds him fusing these concepts into truly intellectualized and fascinating black metal. Still - the set of vibes that the band invokes here is exciting and speaks to unique new directions for the project to go. The simple elegance of the almost tribal drumming counteracted with even the bitterest invocations makes for a record that has very high replay value.

Through Doors Of Moonlight is going to impress the listener because it brings in so many disparate elements and executes eloquently on all of them. Just as I am enamored with the pagan sounds I also love the synths and the drum programming on a track like Perdition In The Oneness. This is a very thoughtful and broad record. It's an album that cries out and shows the world just how the beauty of nature has impacted the artist. Though it is early days for At The Altar Of The Horned God I am very curious to see where this project goes next.

Find out more on Bandcamp!
https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/