Alburnum – The Withered Roots of Reality

Band: Alburnum
Album: The Withered Roots of Reality
Label: Independent
Release date: July 20, 2024
Country: The Netherlands
Format reviewed: High-quality digital recording

A relaxed, folk induced black metal album on a lazy summer morning, sounds truly delightful, especially after searching the internet for new black metal releases for over an hour. I wasn’t familiar with Alburnum’s music, so this album was more or less a shot in the dark, but what I found turned out to be truly pleasant. Despite following the general lines of the style, the band allows themselves to play around with the musical elements, creating an interesting balance between the black metal and folk aspects.

Even from the first track it is obvious that the band decided to approach the instrumental side in a unique manner. Generally, when it comes to black metal with folk influences, no matter the percentage of each element, the ratio between them seems to stay the same throughout the record, without much variation. This is not the case here, however. With “The Withered Roots of Reality” Alburnum offers us a particular kind of performance. Throughout the music, the black metal and folk elements interchange rather often. This essentially means that, within a song you will find a classic black metal passage followed by an acoustic guitar one, or combinations of the two that create a link between these styles. Sometimes the folk influence is audible only in the song structure, while other times it is present in every musical aspect of the song.

Another interesting quirk of this album that I want to mention is the soloing present on it, most notably on the title track. The lead guitar in this song is truly impressive in both complexity and musicality. Pair this with the power and aggression of the rhythm tremolo riffs, galloping drums and harsh vocals, and you get an epic, memorable piece that stays with you for quite some time. It is also the song that captures the overall atmosphere of the album best, so, if you want to give it a shot, listen to this song first, and make up your mind afterwards.

An aspect that I enjoyed on this record, is the predominant use of harsh vocals throughout the record. Compared to most modern folk black metal, which uses a combination of clan and harsh vocals, it was interesting to hear this less compromising take. The album, in general, when it comes to its black metal side, it is very close to traditional black metal, without much flourish. I find this to be very refreshing, as it adds a layer of honesty to the music.

The last musical trait that I would like to touch upon is the folk element. Usually, when we think of a folk metal influence, we tend to imagine bands like Falkenbach or Primordial. However, the folk element here is more similar to what you would find on, perhaps, an agalloch album. There are many acoustic instrumentals being used in combination with everything else mentioned so far, which makes the music feel more calm, rather than grandious.

All in all, Alburnum’s “The Withered Roots of Reality” is a relaxing listen that is guaranteed to both get you into a meditative mood, while also enjoying some high quality black metal. I recommend you listen to it on your next walk. 9/10 by Ioanna

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