Possessed by a voice spoken through the fire-borne flickering of the quintessence and set upon the deathly cold of the nightside Oulu, Finland-based black metal trio UNFYROS open a second channel above and beyond within the course of this inspired sophomore full-length album. Awash in purposed exploration of the unseen and wrapped within the process of transcendence from the corporeal ‘Star Blood‘ offers its own ozone-hewn brilliancy, a unique act of ancient-handed spiritual gloom via mid-paced atmospheric black metal. A feat of unreal doomed resonance beyond their already brilliant earlier work this album explores their knack for the wandering riff in cyclic reprise, an impressive weave developed within droning ritual-bound focus and presented via arcane yet crystalline sound.

Unfyros were founded circa 2018 by Anti Ittna H. (ex-Dolorian, Aural Hypnox) as conjuration of the fire from Beyond, works summoned by meditative occult focus and given narrative by ritualistic conjure. The initial project would soon include drummer Nox Vector in 2021 as work on their impressive debut LP (‘Alpha Hunt‘, 2022) commenced. A feat of “black/heavy metal” in their works but surely enriched with ritualistic doom and ancient black metal most forthright I’d reviewed that initial feat favorably, stoked by its black flame whirling mind and inspired illustrative hand (per both lyrics and riffcraft) enough to include it at #6 on my Top 100 Albums of 2022. A sensorial experience with simple enough mid-paced ‘old school’ doomed black metal execution the plodding hypnosis available to that debut is what’d drawn me in but their focus on summoning the unseen, accessing the unknown is what’d held my attention back then and continued to feed anticipation for ‘Star Blood‘.

By that description one’d easily view this second LP as polished iteration as those same sensibilities exist in this work though they are presented with slightly different production values and presence, sound design which depicts a calm but open space with a snarling vocal at its center-point and an angled slight overhead drum sound. The nocturnal conjure of ‘Star Blood‘ is suggested as the result of devotional levels of focus, ritualized creation crafted with a specific feeling in mind, and in this sense the dread and gloom-stricken pulse of Unfyros‘ work is revived but mutated through more varietal pacing and slightly more coloration to both synth/keyboards and bass guitar work (bassist T. Von Kollaja joined around ~2023). The hypnotic sprawl of their work, particularly the interplay of the drumming and rhythm guitar work once again reads as the main driver though here the riff and its cogency equally considers interplay with keys and this is most noticeable via opener “Her Freezing Wings” and its similarly sauntering neighbor “Elemental Poison”.

The air has shifted as an uncanny coldness enters Unfyros‘ temple, pulling the psyche away from the ominous warmth of their prior release into chilling celestial muse. This sense of sojourn into mysterious transcendental fate is believably conveyed through climes, rhythms and words, as suggested by certain song titles up front, though I admittedly do not have the lyrics on hand at the time of review beyond what I can discern by ear. The mournful early 90’s gloom-tone cast over this release is one of its best features, particularly what boon via the synth/keyboards provide as additional voicing and heightened sense of momentum. The walk through is less of a squarely droning act and more a surreal account as evidenced by mid-album track “Black Magnetism” which wanders a bit without sidestepping the band’s fixated ritual verve. Otherwise “Dark Star Talisman” and the aforementioned “Elemental Poison” take a more readily wandering path and feature as some of the best parts of ‘Star Blood‘.

The slow-burnt glowering of Unfyros‘ atmospheric hand persists within these details and tonal development though their work here additionally speaks to transformation on a more practical level. The riffs themselves are no less rounded in their development than before but they speak to less cyclically realized voice, more of a wandering muse, and the count is higher. As such the greater pulse of the experience is quickened, almost jogging through the more menacing turns of closer “Nefyral (Cold-Whisperer)” beyond the lunging vexation afforded by default. The draw of the experience is once again the nuance of their movement and the atmospheric surround though I was initially torn between the seated fixation of their debut and this more mobile, wintry woods-wandering trip.

‘Star Blood‘ is its own intoxicating mid-paced black metal magickry, a step beyond Unfyros‘ debut where they’ve only just needed to contort their core mechanism slightly to open this new dimensional channel. Through its six roughly six-minute long pieces their invocations transport without reaching for unrelated or interruptive notions, entertaining for the sake of their focus and expanding vision. The curation of the experience, from the visual read of the packaging to the flow through the full listen, once again only amplifies the sensation of accompanying their shamanic stature through these summons and to the point that on a basal level my evaluation couldn’t be any lower than that of ‘Alpha Hunt‘. Though it was a slower-to-bloom compulsion than three years ago I’ve found myself wandering back to this record for its immersive search as well as pure enjoyment of the sound design provided. A very high recommendation.

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