There are records that grab your attention, and then there are those that charge at you, screaming bloody murder and waving a flaming sword in your face. Hymns of Ember and Ash by Arendia is most definitely the latter. This four-track Blackened Thrash Metal assault might clock in as an EP, but it’s got the ambition, scope, and raw fucking energy of a full-blown album — the kind that leaves you standing in the ashes and embers, trying to work out what the hell just hit you.

From the opening riff, Hymns of Ember and Ash makes its intentions brutally clear — this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Thrash revivalist nonsense. This is violence with vision. The guitars slice, jagged and unpredictable, weaving through time changes so erratic and exhilarating it’s like getting thrown around inside a tornado made entirely of steel and hate. There’s a muscularity here, the kind that makes you grit your teeth and nod like a lunatic as each riff detonates.

The drumming is feral — a whirling cyclone of precision that swings between relentless Thrash pummelling and Black Metal fury. Blast beats burst into double kicks, which collapse into half-time stomps before roaring back into speed again. It’s dizzying, it’s punishing, and it’s executed with such tight control that you can almost hear the blood in the drummer’s veins boiling.

Vocally, Arendia hit the perfect middle ground between snarling rage and commanding presence, half shouted, half screamed, but never losing that thrash-born sense of rhythm and clarity. You can actually feel the words being spat out like burning coals.

What sets Hymns of Ember and Ash apart is its sheer unpredictability. One moment it’s a ripping Thrash anthem, the next it’s spiralling into dissonant Black Metal tremolo territory, only to come crashing back down into a mid-tempo chug so heavy it could level a city. And despite its savagery, there’s a real sense of craft here. The riffs are memorable, the structures clever, and the musicianship tighter than the Devil’s grip. It’s that rare kind of EP that doesn’t just sound like a taster for what’s to come — it feels like a complete, blistering statement of intent.

With Hymns of Ember and Ash, Arendia have managed to fuse two volatile genres into something that feels natural, vicious, and utterly exhilarating.

Hymns of Ember and Ash by Arendia is available now.

CHOICE CUT: The Hollowing

BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: Hymns of Ember and Ash is a firestorm of an EP — a perfect fusion of Thrash precision and Black Metal chaos. It’s short, sharp, and absolutely merciless, a record that hits like a flaming mace to the face and leaves you grinning through the blood.