Valdrin – Throne of the Lunar Soul (Review)

This is the fourth album from US black metallers Valdrin.

It’s been a long time since 2014’s Beyond the Forest, and Valdrin have had two other full albums since then. Throne of the Lunar Soul is their latest, and boasts an imposing 73 minutes of material. What does the Valdrin of 2023 have to offer the discerning black metal fan?

Well, almost a decade after their debut album Valdrin have turned into a powerhouse of melodic black metal. Valdrin’s approach to black metal is thoroughly old-school, rooted deeply in the second wave. They incorporate elements of the symphonic style into their music, as well as some folk touches here and there. It’s an epic album of grandiose scope and commanding presence. As easy reference points you can think of bands such as Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Gehenna, Satyricon, and Enslaved. However, Valdrin have a personality of their own within this, and on Throne of the Lunar Soul they showcase this in no uncertain terms.

The songs are well-written, with obvious attention to detail, dynamics, structure, atmosphere, fury, and flow taken into account. These are more than just assemblages of riffs, these are fully formed songs, capable of captivating and enthralling the listener with their charismatic might. Valdrin clearly know how to write a storming black metal tune, and there are eleven of the damn things on Throne of the Lunar Soul.

Despite the record’s considerable length, Valdrin don’t falter throughout. The songs each stand strong in their own right, yet each of them are at their best surrounded by the rest of the tracks, delivering a very holistic experience overall. Every song offers the listener something a little different, something of its own, and within its stylistic framework there’s more variety here than you would expect. The album is so high quality that the length of it falls away, leaving you with simply a superlative black metal journey that’s utterly absorbing.

On paper Throne of the Lunar Soul should be a very generic and stale album. But it’s not. At all. Valdrin have a magic ingredient, (several of them in fact), and Throne of the Lunar Soul is greater than the sum of its parts. Valdrin have put together something unexpectedly special here. A triumph of songwriting.

Essential listening.