Set as a plague upon the Earth, trampled by cloven hooves and devoured by the chittering black gleam of Apollyon’s lion-toothed golden-crowned swarm, so begins an endless state of war and regress in the musing minds of Uppsala, Sweden-based primally blackened and melodic death-thrashing quintet Third Storm as they return for a second novella in a suggested trilogy of full-length albums. Their sinister brew demands their use of every tool at their disposal to illustrate this unreal apocalyptic epic which is rife with plagues, pious opportunists, and daemonic power grabs. With nearly forty years worth of inspiration poured into their uniquely melodic, epic, and thrashing form ‘The Locust Mantra‘ continues to take on a tall order, connecting different generational traits into one ideal vision able to flex and adapt to the grand scale of concept. As often as we find extreme metal bands discovering a pocket and wearing a hole in it in this case the oeuvre is vast enough that hands flit between pockets at will and without losing the intensity of their attack in the process.

Third Storm were one of the earlier black metal bands formed in the Uppsala area¹, forming by way of teenaged fellowes goaded into extremity circa 1986 by vocalist Hevar Bozarslan‘s enthusiasm for extreme bestial works from Bathory, early Sodom, some South American-level blasting, and of course Hellhammer which should be obvious per the name they’d ultimately chosen. We don’t have access to their late eighties tapes online and by Daniel Ekeroth‘s account their 1988 tape wasn’t very good, at least in terms of riffs, but we do know that Bozarslan would go on to front Sarcasm, one of my personal favorite lesser-knowns from the mid-90’s melodic death metal arena who’d found a way to return in the post-millennium and release serious music to the tune of something like four LPs now. Of course Third Storm eventually returned as well (ca. 2014) and they’d managed to bring back the original guitarist for one EP (‘Tar​î​t​î​ya Me‘, 2015) before some shuffling of the rhythm section beyond 2016 or so. I’ve already detailed much of those changes in somewhat extensive review of the band’s debut LP (‘The Grand Manifestation‘, 2018). It’d been the defining moment for the band’s intent and multi-pronged style and even now it remains a lot to take in.

If you’re one for precedence set and continuity maintained I’d suggest revisiting that first full-length as essential listening and a general introduction to the form of thrashing, melodic and I would say unique black metal which these folks have sustained thus far, a sound relatable to the early forms of melodic black/death metal out of Sweden in the early-to-mid 90’s but also some of the adjacent extreme thrash of the era. Think of Satanic Slaughter beyond their debut, maybe post-EP Swordmaster and we’re at least somewhere in a nearby realm; Though the dual rhythm guitar trade-off and shared contra-phrasal wield of the old ways is there with opener “The Clandestine Gospel” we should look to the more obviously stated “Mater Pest” beyond the ~2:30 minutes mark as an example of an inspired melodic black/death metal burst, a reeling sort of progression which translates then-and-now as effective heavy metal dramatism. In this case they’ve built around that moment in a way which is neither squarely of the ‘old school’ nor clearly defined in either the black or death metal realm. Not to mention the song’s use of sci-fi synth to start, and the whole of the composition beyond this eye of the storm that soon takes over the reigns of the song. If we take that level of magnification to our lens upon the running order of ‘The Locust Mantra‘ then we find the difference is in the details compared to the previous album. Otherwise if we zoom out to general dynamic of each greater thread, the pace of presentation, and the style of pieces explored we find some iteration shared between the first and second two volumes of Third Storm.

That is to say that Third Storm are intent on connecting their narrative trilogy with parity of experience, leaving this second novelization intentionally similar as they’d rendered the first back in 2018. This time around it all gels better, they’ve found some greater precision of rhythm/cadence, and as a result make less room for speed metal interruptions. Telling a broadly tangled web of a story while presenting an epic, thrashing and melodic meld of forms calls for an extensive narrative throughout yet Bozarslan‘s vocals aren’t overbearing in the sense that ‘The Locust Mantra‘ is dominated by the conversation shared between the rhythm guitar work (which sets the pace) and the cadence of the vocals as they develop in tight association with said riffs. Whereas certain points of ‘The Grand Manifestation‘ were overly stuffed with riff-changes and elaborate description some of that run-on essence is tempered so that the music might take turns with greater ease while still acting as one. There are nuances to observe otherwise, of course, but the most important note to take is the change of rhythm section with new folks who lend a different touch to the band’s movement, slightly more precise at times but also even more extreme (“World Infernal”) in a few cases, bringing a bit of extra intensity to this one.

Since I’d particularly enjoyed what Third Storm‘d done with their ‘epic’ pieces or and slower movements on the previous record (“The Third Thought From the Sun” b/w “Forgotten Deity”) I’d found “Demigod Doctrine” was a standout as it lined up with that style, not a far cry from the more doomed and mid-to-slow paced ventures from the most recent Sarcasm record (‘Stellar Stream Obscured‘). In this case their deliberate and dramatic arc’ing is likely more related to a holistic consideration of 80’s Bathory when we get to the root/intent of this piece. Even just four or five pieces in to the total nine on this ~41 minute record the whole deal begins to feel like a trip, that it was going somewhere, per the density of each piece and in this sense I’d found myself overwhelmed on the first few spins trying to parse one direction to head in with the band’s multi-fluent approach. Most of the album keeps the speed ripping along, trading focus between intricate melodicism (my favorite piece: “Inescapable Echoes of War”) and thrashing black metal (“Dawn of the Fearmongers”) to break things up. None of these pieces fumble, drag or miss their mark even if a few kind of average riffs fling past here and there it all entertains when the rhythm-obsessive ear is engaged.

The imaginative nature of their narrative is one of the more interesting aspects of Third Storm‘s gear but since I’ve no lyric sheet this time around I can only assume the verbose and imaginative work also aims for continuity herein. The rasped vocals and their presentation isn’t wildly varied but there is poetic intonation applied to the lyrics I can make out and (again) their cadence is tied to rhythm in such a way that much of ‘The Locust Mantra‘ feels like a beast of many arms, a biomechanical monstrosity built from classics-minded parts but always aiming for the intensity of late 80’s/early 90’s extreme metal, a certain level of menace in the imagery which matches their attack. This is well-reflected in the album art from Raúl González, whose illustrations are typically appropriate for the fantastical realm of extreme metal and just busy enough that you’ll take a closer look and stare, poking around for images which pertain to the album’s storytelling. This thought translates to their compositional depth, it reads as busied without any clear point of focus to start but wherever your mind chooses to zoom in it’ll end up rewarded for taking a closer look/listen. In my case it took a good ten listens before I could begin making a list of my favorite moments on this album but hey, it was ultimately a long list. A high recommendation.

1. Ekeroth, D. (2008). Swedish Death Metal. pg. 411. ↩︎

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