Iniquitous black winds howl aloud in conveyance of the journey our protagonist, a natural sceptic, takes in recognizing how lost he is in the wretchedness of societal distortions, balking at the dry mediocrity of humanity’s modern designs on this inward-facing debut full-length album from Italian black metal quartet ARAPHEL. In giving himself to the solemnity of nature, turning away from the hubris of society and setting a keen ear toward what is real a profound oath is mused and then sworn within ‘The Endchanter‘ to seek fortitude in observance of the dark void within and secure one’s own path to singularity. To depict these deeper self-effulgent examinations the artist relies upon both poetic and warlike methods, an ancient-sounding tract of songs which speak directly to ‘old school’ black metal and its relevance to traditional and/or ‘epic’ heavy metal.

Araphel was spearheaded by former Demonomancy drummer Santo (Into Darkness, Thulsa Doom) circa 2021 with the intent of creating black metal which not only retained heavy metal character but spoke to the truth of his own singularity, an outlet which naturally reads well in the context of Quorthonian spiritus. The artist’s efforts would center around the rhythm section and vocals to start, penning the material while including Doomed Warrior from Into Darkness and Eros from Extirpation in the two guitar positions for their debut EP (‘Old Comet Transition‘, 2024). The two original songs on that first release were their own revelation which’d bear the metal warrior stridency of classic Greek black metal which’d likely impress any fan of similarly minded late 90’s debut albums from Agatus and Desaster where epic heavy metal structures gave sauntering profundity to black metal’s reckless severity. I was particularly impressed when they’d included a cover of a song from Zemial‘s ‘Face of the Conqueror‘ EP and managed to make its repetitious ‘old school’ black metal groove work within their own context and that is the main reason I’ve taken a closer look at this album.

Both of the original songs from ‘Old Comet Transition‘ (“Old Comet Transition” b/w “A Meaning Quest – The Smile of Sisyphus”) were re-recorded and feature prominently within the sessions for ‘The Endchanter‘ though I would suggest you still revisit that first EP for the sake of comparing the production values applied then and now. That is to say that Araphel‘s debut aims for crisp and thunderously cut heavy metal resound whereas they’d previously modeled their capture closer to auld Hellenic black metal reverberation. Most of the songs included still naturally feature characteristics of said inspiration (“Scentless Epoch” esp.) but there is yet an open-skied brightness given to this recording which keeps it reading as a traditional heavy metal built experience throughout. The nearly ~7.5 minute opener/title track, “The Endchanter”, makes it clear enough that while this album is going to keep it true in most respects it is yet a black metal statement when it comes time to take a lens to their riffs and stride alongside.

“Old Comet Transition” has riffs, a rousing shore-crashing series of waves which they gallop atop throughout but I’d been no less impressed by the lyrics which speak, poetically, toward a retraction of the self away from the crowd. Whether the end result is solace or not the message of personal singularity feels entirely appropriate per Araphel‘s style. Otherwise the lyrics end up being an appreciable point of interest for ‘The Endchanter‘ on the walk through with my favorite thought being something along the lines of mankind being destined to conquer and that “heaven” would suffer no less on “Elysian Fields Ablaze”. It is also just a fine song which has a shade of epic doom metal to some of its slower sections and perhaps acts as the piece which speaks loudest to the effect of records like ‘A Touch of Medieval Darkness‘ at a glance.

The two songs that secure ‘The Endchanter’ as a well above-average feat in my mind beyond the impression made by its opening pieces are decisively the early Rotting Christ and Varathron-esque “Scentless Epoch” and the somewhat more ‘epic’ attunement of closer “The Song of Araphel”. Each piece features particularly fine bass guitar arrangement and tone which reinforces their impact in a palpable way, transforming what might appear to be Scandinavian “epic” black and Greek classics infused templating into something unusually expressive. “The Song of Araphel” is probably one of the better closing pieces I’ve heard this year in terms of not only finding a natural point for the album’s theme to resolve within but also making a big show of it, I’d appreciated that the perceived moment of transcendental realization in the lyrics is matched with appropriately dramatic music.

Tonally more aspirational than it is cruel or imposing Araphel‘s work here carries a strong enough sense of tunefulness and niche/taste specific style applied here that ‘The Endchanter‘ believable arrives upon a better sense of self than they’d arrived with. Beyond the desired result I’d found it to be an admirably polished and memorable heavy metal record in the black metal tradition and a well above average, squarely on-track result for a debut. A high recommendation.

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