BLOEDMAAN – Vampyric War in Blood

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://lnk.to/vampyricwarinblood

The Flemish entity known as Bloedmaan impressed this scribe greatly two years ago when mastermind Ronarg (Antzaat, Ars Veneficium) unleashed the epic-sounding and surprisingly catchy Castle Inside the Eclipse via the rock-solid Immortal Frost Productions, which has proven to be one of those uniquely crafted black metal releases that I find myself coming back to at regular intervals. What are we to make of the follow-up, the one titled Vampyric War in Blood, then?    

Vampyric War in Blood is the natural successor to Castle Inside the Eclipse in that it follows the same musical path carved out in 2023, namely with respect to style, tone, melodic flair, and overall mood. Majestic and atmospheric black metal consisting of soaring riffs that evoke mental images of windswept and wintry fields, desolate woods, old ruins, and decaying souls is the name of the game, and the record’s eight compositions (including the intro and outro) are expressive and powerful, moving and vivid, and oftentimes spinetingling, which is exemplified by the kaleidoscopic title track and “What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse” due to their astonishing depth and brilliant shifts and turns. Another highlight is the sinister and almost doom-like “The Clock Tower,” which is borderline mesmerizing. The only thing I miss on the rare occasion is a bit more variety and unpredictability with respect to the vocals, but this is a minor gripe, really.    

Perhaps due to the theme and the things that inspired the LP, the music feels slightly eerier and more unsettling than the material that made up the 2023 opus, which is no bad thing in that it gives Ronarg’s latest work an edge and identity of its own in some respects. Bloedmaan has succeeded in coming up with a fresh-sounding batch of songs that incorporates some of the most memorable and noteworthy aspects of mid-to-late 90s melodic black metal without rehashing old ideas that have outstayed their welcome, which is merely another way of stating that Vampyric War in Blood feels exploratory, muscular, and perfectly compelling.