Every so often, something lands in my ears that just makes me stop what I’m doing, stare into the middle distance, and mutter, “Oh, you magnificent bastard.” Ad Aspectum Hereticum by Gurthadun is one of those albums. It’s not just good — it’s fucking good. The kind of record that sinks its claws into your flesh, drags you down into the depths, and somehow makes you thank it for the experience. I can’t even tell you exactly why it hits so hard. All I know is that it’s addictive — raw, refined, chaotic, precise — a swirling maelstrom of everything that makes Black Metal worth bleeding for.
This is an album that doesn’t settle. It wanders, it explores, it devours. One moment you’re neck-deep in a relentless storm of blast-beats and frostbitten tremolo riffs — the next, you’re swept into wide, atmospheric soundscapes that stretch to the edge of reason. Take Sol Invictus, for example: a near four-minute sonic beating that doesn’t so much start as it does erupt, like someone kicked open the gates of Hell and handed Beelzebub a drum kit. Then there’s Exhorratio, which slows the pace just enough to breathe in the icy air of Immortal’s spirit — those wide, expansive riffs, that sense of frozen grandeur that only the greats can conjure, while still packing enough punch to level a mountain.
What Gurthadun achieves on Ad Aspectum Hereticum is balance — the razor-thin edge between savagery and beauty. It’s Black Metal that remembers its roots in the raw and the rotten, but still has the courage to look skyward and chase the sublime.
Gurth, the twisted mind steering this vessel, has crafted something that feels simultaneously ancient and utterly modern, like a long-forgotten scripture rewritten in blood and fire.
But credit where credit’s due: this isn’t a one-man wankfest of control. Gurth may be the constant architect, but fuck me, the combination of Sistre behind the kit and Akhen Vandeamon on vocals is absolutely lethal. Sistre doesn’t just play drums — they sound like they’re summoning avalanches, each hit cracking like thunder across a storm-split sky. And Akhen Vandeamon? That voice could peel paint off the walls of a cathedral. It’s pure anguish, torture, and authority rolled into one hell-forged snarl. If there’s any justice in the world, Gurth will keep this lineup together, because this is a trio that sounds like destiny.
The production walks that beautiful tightrope — clear enough to let every tremolo scream and snare crack shine, but still raw enough to leave dirt under your fingernails. You can feel the grime, the sweat, the blood baked into the riffs.
By the time the album closes, you’re left with that rare, perfect stillness that follows true catharsis. Ad Aspectum Hereticum isn’t just another Black Metal record — it’s an invocation, a ritual, a goddamn revelation. It’s proof that when passion, fury, and artistry align, the result can still take your fucking breath away.
Ad Aspectum Hereticum is available from the Gurthadun Bandcamp page.
CHOICE CUT: Exhorratio
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: A near-perfect embodiment of everything Black Metal should be — furious, atmospheric, spiritual, and unapologetically alive. Gurthadun have carved their name into the stone of the underground, and Ad Aspectum Hereticum is the hammer that made the mark.
