A little while ago, I reviewed Malum Veneficus single/ep , W’tch Brew/Jystr Fool, and said of it, and them, that it fell;

just on the right side of mad genius without teetering into the abyss of what in the fuck was that?

I absolutely adored that single/ep offering – also, if it’s less than three tracks, does anyone mind if I call them singles from here on out – as it was as brilliant as it was bat-shit crazy, so when news reached me that Malum Veneficus had just put out their debut album, Brewing Spell Cauldryn, I eagerly rushed to Bandcamp to see what other savant lunacy they had to offer, but part of me, I have to admit, was a little worried.

Could they pull it of? A full album? Or was the single a freak incident, a lightning in a bottle moment? Did Malum Veneficus have the ability to follow through with their wicked, wicked ways and drop a record that could live up to my expectations?

Well, yes. Of course they could, and who the fuck am I to have thought otherwise?

Brewing Spell Cauldryn is a work of unhinged ingenuity that embraces as many genres as it can to deliver an entire new sub-genre I am calling Demonic Bardic Black Metal. These aren’t songs, this is sacred music that carries within it the hidden texts and spells of evil warlocks and the tales of those warriors that opposed them.

This is a musical journey through forgotten times when gods and monsters fought for control and good and evil stalked the lands. This is the kind of music Homer would’ve made if Black Metal had existed in Ancient Greece.

I fucking love this record.

Yes, I admit that I use that expression a little more than I should when something reaches me here at the Black Metal Archives that catches my attention from the first second, but what else do you expect me to say?

I love the sound of it, how its as raw as an uncooked egg on the back of a live pig. I love the feel of it, like being strapped in an electric chair while the bastard is on, and I love the style of it, darker than the Whitby festival on an incredibally stormy weekend in the middle of a blackout during a solar eclipse.

I fucking love this record, it really is that fucking good.

Head on over to the Malum Veneficus Bandcamp page and get yourself a copy of Brewing Spell Cauldryn, one of the best albums of 2024.