Wolves of the Underworld by Helvitnir is the forthcoming debut album from former members of Mayhem, Ragnarok and Myronath and featuring the legend that is Hellhammer on the drums. Which, you would’ve known already, if you’d read this piece I did on the band a couple of days ago, but did you?
No, instead you were too busy out and about, flouncing around in high society while I was here, working my socks off, to bring you quality reviews and articles like this, and what thanks do I get??? Bunch of ungrateful bastards… sorry, where was I?
Ah yes, the original Helvitnir piece I wrote stated how fucking awesome I thought the band were and how everything they had released to this point – which totalled an EP and the single off this upcoming album – should be placed in an ornate coffin, placed upon an altar, and worshipped as a Black Metal God.
This led to me I receiving an email from guitarist Tom Arild Johansen with an advanced copy of the album, Wolves of the Underworld, and I can tell you honestly, hand on my little black heart, that – outside of having to check out a few bands for possible reviews – I haven’t stopped playing it since.
When I get up at 4 am so I can have a couple of hours peace before my demon spawn wake, it’s what I blast out my headphones with my morning coffee and cigarette. When I go shopping for essentials, it’s the musical accompaniment to me buzzing down the aisle looking for bread and milk. And when the spawn have finally returned to their crypts at days end, it’s the heavy as fuck lullabies that lull me to sleep and into my alcohol induced fever dreams.
Wolves of the Underworld is album of the year material, make no mistake about it.
I talk a lot about how records make me feel when I write about them, what emotions they inspire in me, and I use a lot of words that repeat on themselves. After all, there’s only some many different ways you can say ‘This is fucking brilliant’ or ‘This reached out and touched me’ before you end up repeating yourself, but the one word I rarely use is awe, and that’s what Helvitnir have managed to capture within the confines of Wolves of the Underworld, absolute awe.
This album is jaw droppingly brutal, with some of the most mind bending Black Metal you will ever hear. It comes at you harder than a rhino on a rutting campaign and it doesn’t offer any apologies for what it is about to do to you, and what it is about to do to you is fuck you up beyond all recognition and make you thank it for doing so.
This is pure, unadulterated Black Metal of the highest order, and when the dust settles on 2025 – if we make it that far – I fully expect Wolves of the Underworld to be at the top of everyone’s Black Metal Album of the Year list. If it isn’t then we, as a fandom, have failed miserably.
