Purity Through Fire announces October 31st as the international release date for Kvad’s third album, Sort Skogsmesse, on CD and vinyl LP formats: Kvad (NOR) – En Sti Mot Nord – Trackpremiere 2025
There’s no slowing Peregrinus, one of the most prolific black metal musicians this decade. Those following the crimes of Purity Through Fire should be well aware of his Hjemsøkt, Solus Grief, and Unholy Craft bands and most recently Heraldic Blaze, but as the chill of autumn soon approaches, it’s time for Kvad to bring back BLACK METAL exclusively in the ancient Nordic tradition.
Kvad’s last album, 2023’s So Old, saw Peregrinus melding mid-’90s Gorgoroth with the fever-dreaming psychedelia of Svest and Weakling: archaic and traditional, but with a uniquely modern touch. With the band’s third album, Sort Skogsmesse, there’s a more concerted strive toward the ancient…and yet, done so authentically and with such songwriting nous, Kvad manage the unthinkable: creating a „lost classic“ in present times. Truly, the aesthetic signposts are there, planted deeper than ever – from Under the Sign of Hell to Dawn of the Dying Sun, Kronet til konge to Dark Waters Stir, blazing in the northern sky with various shades of „Dunkelheit“ – but Peregrinus and drummer Lord G conjure a mesmerizing spell that simultaneously invokes all those and none of them. The soundfield is even grittier this time, with thick-yet-distant riffing, bass that’s a bit gutted, and Peregrinus‘ vocals going for a throatier mid-range. Underneath – or perhaps overhead, depending on your proclivities – reside a subtle fog of starlit synth, faint yet effective, adding further levity to these quite-earthen creations. And whereas its predecessor delved into slipstreaming violence more often than not, Sort Skogsmesse shifts tempos more often, a veritable sturm und drung between monged-out mid-tempo and ambient speed. The past is so alive, it’s DEAD!
