Album Review: Nyctophilia / Kalmankantaja

Bands: Kalmankantaja / Nyctophilia
Album: Kalmankantaja / Nyctophilia
Label: Wolfspell Records
Release date: March 06th, 2026
Country: Finland / Poland
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording

Album Review: Nyctophilia / Kalmankantaja split via Wolfspell Records by Ioana

For those of you who have been keeping up with my reviews, first off, thank you, and second of all, you will certainly recognize both of the names included in this split. Kalmankantaja is one of those bands whose music has been proven fairly consistent over the years, and if my reviews of their records might mean anything, let it be an indicator of said consistency. As far as Nyctophilia is concerned, this is a project that I have become particularly fond of, and my collaborations with project main-man Grief have been some of my favourites from all my time writing for this zine. That being said, when he approached me on the topic of reviewing this split, I couldn’t refuse, and thus, hear we are.

The split spans a little under 40 minutes and it is comprised out of two tracks, one by Kalmankantaja and one by Nyctophilia, respectively, with both ranging around the 20 minute mark, plus minus a few minutes. And even though both bands can be categorized as “atmospheric black metal” genre wise, their respective approaches are rather different in more than one way, ranging from the atmosphere of the music to the instrumentation. But first off, it is important to, of course, list the similarities and common points of the two projects, so that the cohesion of this split makes sense to those who have not come to listen to it yet. The first similarity, and the most noticeable one, is that both tracks are lengthy, atmosphere dense compositions, which, through their heavy use of synth, repetitive riffs and echo-y vocals, create a sense of immersion, which I would describe as very similar to a dreamscape. Both are also centered on slow tempos, and there isn’t a lot happening rhythm wise throughout the entire span of the record. The drums thus end up acting more as a faint pulse maintaining the rest of the music rather than a source of dynamism, as is normally typical of black metal.

Kalmankantaja’s side of the split, however, leans a lot more heavily into that dreamscape mood I brought up earlier. Their latest records also show them increasingly using more and more epic black metal elements, with their split material even reminding me at times of the likes of Lustre and Eldamar, albeit with a rather darker undertone. The drums are even more faded in the background than in the case of the Nyctophilia song, and this is also one of the reasons why it reminded me more of ambient music than standard black metal, but this is simply a matter of subjectivity on my behalf.

On the other hand, the material provided by Nyctophilia comes off as a little bit better defined instrumentation wise, with both the riffs and the drums being slightly sharper, and the synths also come off as less fuzzy compare to the first half of the split. The overall song structure and mood is also more doomy, with the track itself starting with a very slow section, very much in vein of traditional doom metal, at least from my perspective. This is also why I am a little biased towards Nyctophilia’s contribution, as it definitely hit a sweet spot for me in a lot of ways.

All of this being said, this is yet another record I am going to classify as “for experienced listeners only”, given that the uninitiated, when coming across it, would be given trouble by the long, repetitive passages in particular. However, for those of you out there who are longtime fans of atmospheric black metal, I highly encourage you to seek this one out. 8.5/10

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Kalmankantaja
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Band
Nyctophilia
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8.5/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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