Album Review: Schreigarm – Mara Comes and Darkness Shall Reign

Band: Schreigarm
Title: Mara Comes and Darkness Shall Reign
Label: Purity Through Fire
Release date: September 12th 2025
Country: Germany
Format reviewed: High quality digital recording

Album Review: Schreigarm – Mara Comes and Darkness Shall Reign via Purity Through Fire by Michelle

Among the many bands I get to choose from to review, I stumbled across an interesting group that particularily stood out to me. From a first glance, you’d think you’re about to listen to some mid 90s symphonic black metal considering how the album cover looks like. At least that’s what I personally thought. Well, I must say that this is not really the case. It’s hard to describe their exact sound, though it’s a mix of atmospheric, ambiental and somewhat melodic elements that seem to perfectly blend with each other.

Like many other records, this one starts with an intro called ‘Darkness Shall Reign’, and while I’m not really fond of album intros or even acknowledge them much, I quite enjoyed this one due to its calm yet melancholic approach.

As the record continues with ‘Winds of the Ancient Pantheons’, I’m met with a pretty interesting type of vocals which I’m personally familiar with from other listened bands. I really liked the energetic guitar riffs and the overall sorrowful ambience, increasing my curiosity and motivation to keep on listening.

One of the songs I very much enjoyed is ‘When The Ravens Flow Through My Veins’, with its rythmically balanced opening riff dominating the melody until the higher pitched vocals join in and the tempo is changed. The appearance of the synth is the cherry on top, harmonizing everything together.

‘Through Time, Death and the Beast Within’ really quite surprised me with the joining of the clean vocals, honestly I think this is a really nice addition considering the type of sound Schreigarm incorporates into their music. Even though I’m not a big fan of this feature unless it is done in a Bathory/Ulver or Windir-like style, for exemple, this is something I would definitely listen to again.
The guitar solo controling the song is absolutely flawless, intensifying a feeling of both melancholy and calmness.

‘Born from the Ashes of War’ ends the album in a really harsh and agressive way, though this aspect is combined with some slightly melodic elements which fit in perfectly with the portrait of this song.

I must say that even though this record didn’t sound as I expected, I still fully enjoyed most of the tracks and would even replay some of them in the near future. 9/10

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9/10 Epic Storm
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