Returned from a portal to massive high fantasy opus and now gazing upwards into the emerald-lit starry skies of another dimension entirely Hyvinkää, Finland-based symphonic black metal duo VARGRAV achieve freshly diabolic grandeur within this dramatically stated fourth full-length album. ‘Dimension: Daemonium‘ doesn’t rescind the ambitions of the band so much as it acts as a pivot of subject as they rejigger their collaborative stance into cosm-sourced eerie and fantastical aggression. Steeped in the spiritus of decades auld pomp yet far from idiotic pop-metal groveling typically associated with the niche their work here is once again worthy of reverence per its engaging, nuanced wield of classic sounds.

Vargrav was initially the sole nightside demesne of V-KhaoZ (Druadan Forest, ex-Azaghal, et al.) from 2015 ’til 2019 wherein two miraculously authentic full-lengths were procured from the fellowe’s mind for 90’s Scandinavian symphonic/melodic black metal. When his debut ‘Netherstorm‘ was released in 2018 it’d been part of a coming wave that’d sought to re-legitimize the long disgraced style per a new generation and well, the last half-decade of output from the deranged polis has been a mix of trendy shite, lazy opportunism… and a few dedicated folks in real tribute. Since I’d gone into great detail with my thoughts back in 2019 per a review for ‘Reign in Supreme Darkness‘ but skipped out on providing deeper thoughts on their premiere as a quartet, the Obsidian Gate-esque ambitions of ‘The Nighthold‘, back in 2023 I’d set aside some extra time with this new release intending to gaze deeper into its beryl-carved depths.

As it turns out there’ll be no need for any drawn-out discourse here as we find Vargrav‘s fourth album pulls back to a duo line-up (vocals via Werwolf) and sidesteps the elaborate cinematic scoring of their prior LP in favor of something tonally similar to Kataxu‘s ‘Hunger of Elements‘ and perhaps a far less feral but still spiritually relevant nod to Odium‘s ‘The Sad Realm of the Stars‘. That is to say that ‘Dimension: Daemonium‘ bears some similarity to what they’d achieved on ‘Reign in Supreme Darkness‘ but pulls back on the narrative aspect, reducing spoken word invocations by a third or so while focusing on a fantastical “cosmic” atmospheric lilt much of the time. Vocals receive dual-toned command a la Old Man’s Child (and others) while drums remain low-rooted but set in voluminous space making for an experience which is less distant than earlier work but still aiming for obscure and dramatic statement rather than the usual substance-void revisionist trash late 90’s/early 2000’s symphonic black metal zeitgeist propagates.

“If we must continue to look back to the orchestra-sized peak of the 90’s black metal ideal (there were more blasts back then, eh) I’d rather it was exactly this well-considered and delivered with this type of brutal finesse.” Those thoughts launched at ‘The Nighthold‘ a few years ago yet apply to Vargrav‘s latest but from a slightly different angle. When I used the term finesse at the time it’d indicated a high level of confident musicianship interlocking into grandeur whereas today I would use it to describe the flow of ideas down the beltway of ‘Dimension: Daemonium‘ as superior to much of their other work in arrange. This is exacerbated via the tonal continuity of synth/keyboard choices and their superior feature above the rhythmic pulse below, an eerily soaring eminence which establishes via opener “Ablaze Upon the Nocturnal Realms” and persists throughout the full listen.

This particular form of black metal has generally always fostered melodic expression and though not all Vargrav songs intend a “hook” so much as some manner of spectacular fixation the majority of Side A and the first half of ‘Dimension: Daemonium‘ generates some manner of interest worth returning to as such. The aforementioned opener brings clean-sung choral melody in around ~2:16 minutes in, “Moonfrost Storms” finds its mid-song declaration and key-tapping final third, and “Dragons of Nightmare” brings some of the narrative highs of the previous album back into view with its assault on the keep in the distance. Point being that none of these ideas appear dashed-out and thoughtless and all of them adhere together thoughtfully and at a years refined standard worthy of Vargrav‘s discography.

Passage into Side B offers a portal unto greater cosmic depth, taking cues from “Dragons of Nightmare” and upping the narrative advance of their work with the impressive step into “The Gates of My Dimension“, a song which also features some of the largest expanses of celestial atmospheric drift on the full listen. While I enjoy every song here and wouldn’t mind a full song-by-song call here it’ll suffice to say that some of the best material on this album executes in its second half as deeper cuts and more bombastic volleys leave their battlefield red and glowing with stardust-lit blood. The absolute apex of the full listen is the Dissection-esque bounding of closer “Unveil the Enslavement of Lunar Prophecies”, a song so effective as and endpoint I’d had to double check if it were an obscure cover or a bonus track since “Starlight Chalice” had felt like a definitive endpoint prior. A full album of songs at such a level of racing, melodious inspire would be praised up and down the hall were it materialized.

Though I’d acknowledge being a celestial bodies’ distance from the anarchic, raw spuming of black metal anti-culture in stating this it should be a point of praise for Vargrav‘s work that it is so sleekly realized here as an ear-catching, high standard for the symphonic black metal niche without resorting to pop metal antics. That might set listeners expectations further from the obscured hum of the band’s debut and rightly so, the evolution of this act has only advanced over time and despite the heightened ambitions of their previous release this one bears just as much impact sans a few extra instrumental pieces. ‘Dimension: Daemonium‘ otherwise reads as effortless in its flow from piece to piece, finding a balance between songs which generate breathing room for maximum atmospheric lilt and others which narrate diabolic star-set phantasm direct to ear. A high recommendation.

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