REVIEWED: Argesk – 'Moonlight Pyromancy'

Beyond the many assorted memes and Instagram reels regularly seen rather mercilessly poking fun at what is, admittedly, a genre whose cartoonish, corpse-painted melodrama lends itself only too readily to such playful mockery, anyone with even a casual interest in black metal will attest that this notorious, ghoulishly subversive offshoot of extreme metal is in a pretty exciting place right now.

Indeed, from the searing viscerality and sumptuous, melancholia-steeped atmospherics of Gaerea and Batushka’s epic, blackly enveloping orchestrations to the undiluted vitriol and exhilarating riffery of Spectral Wound, this is a sub-genre spilling over with creativity and imagination. And as a sonically intrepid entity that deftly interweaves insanely paced episodes of unhinged, hyperblasting sonic extremity with exquisitely intricate symphonic arrangements, Manchester’s Argesk are fine testament to the ingenuity and soul-baring evocative intensity that makes this such a compelling and – dare it be said – diverse variant of extreme metal.

Numbering the northern collective’s second long-player, the poetically-titled ‘Moonlight Pyromancy’ is a record that’s teeming with audible exuberance and lacerating intensity right off the bat. And as we’re ushered into the frigidly entrancing multiplicity of icily gleaming synths that preside over ambient opener ‘Invocation’ before hurtling headlong into the sinewy, frantically bludgeoning throes of ‘Servant of Fire’, there’s no mistaking the meticulously rendered craft underpinning this accomplished long-player. With his wondrously corrosive, abyssal shrieks and penchant for sumptously layered orchestration recalling the iconic, blood-steeped opulence of Cradle of Filth’s long-beloved 1998 classic ‘Cruelty and the Beast’, frontman Matt IH and co. showcase no small amount of unashamed reverence for the old gods of black metal and beyond. Yet, the precise, jaw-droppingly intricate design of these elegantly unfurling melodic passages is one unmistakably unique to its creators. As is the near-balletic ease with which these skilled musicians oscillate between and intermingle the various ornate, blastbeat-laden and sweepingly expansive yarns that comprise this impeccably rendered tapestry of influences.

Among the most compelling highlights to be found within this luxuriant yet utterly blistering long-player, deliriously hook-laden title track ‘Moonlit Pyromancy’ amasses civilisation-levelling scale and synapse-scorching aggression in blackly intoxicating abundance. Bestrewn with hellfire-scorched, frantically whirling arpeggios and sombre, blackly reverberating vocal sections that recall the windswept panorama of fellow countrymen Winterfylleth, ‘…Pyromancy’ is richly illustrative of the superior musicianship and diabolical vision Argesk have amassed a mere two records into their career.

Elsewhere, with its towering expanses of frost-stricken, frantically writhing tremolo, ‘Black Castle Waltz’ is a lavishly realised yet lacerating love letter to the wintry, quintessentially Nordic grandeur of genre-defining Satyricon classic ‘Mother North’. Evoking all the endlessly twisting, serpentine majesty its namesake suggests, ‘Wreathing Serpent’ deals in a heady, ink-black plethora of airily whirling synths and pulverising expanses of weightily churning groove in amongst a delirious slew of luxuriantly unfurling organ notes that elevate this track to the stuff of eerily absorbing cinematic horror.

While the band’s evident admiration for certain sonic touchstones becomes a tad too prominent in places, this is the unmistakable sound of a band awash with inspiration and a keenly discernible creative vision – a beguiling, nocturnal nether-realm of an album that’s as impeccably sculpted as it is tangibly crackling with infernal fire.

8/10

'Moonlight Pyromancy' is out now on Pyromantic Productions