VIRCOLAC, a word which means Werewolf in my native Bulgarian language, is a band from Dublin, Ireland that exists since 2013. Its line-up includes NH on drums (this guy has been active in several other bands of which CRUACHAN was the only one that I have heard of), BMC on guitars and the vocalist Laoghaire. After the 2016 EP "The Cursed Travails of the Demeter" and the 2019 debut full-length album "Masque", VIRCOLAC return to the front with their second offering "Veneration" released by the German label Sepulchral Voice Records. So let's see what those werewolves have to offer...

It all starts with "The Lament (I Am Calling You)" which is something like an intro - Celtic folk music I guess with female singing that doesn't do much for me. The actual music begins with the title track "Veneration" which is a dirty mix of Death and Black metal with peeling guitar riffs, pumping bass tone, blasting drumming and Laoghaire's vocals that remind me of those of Chris Reifert from the mighty AUTOPSY. The mid-tempo part has a strong DARKTHRONE influence which continues in the next song "Unrepentant" which mixes blastbeats with more punkish rhythms. The sound is pretty raw but I guess this is a deliberate decision to try to repeat the sound of the Black metal records from the first half of the 90's. After that comes the more than 7 minute long "Our Burden of Stone and Bone" which starts really slow and Doom-y and then evolves into a more energetic Death/Black track somehow reminding me of the more recent music of SATYRIKON. This is also the first track of "Veneration" where a guitar solo can be heard. This track swings between fast tempo and funeral Doom-y slow. "All Comes to Pass, Nothing Shall Remain" puts the aggression back in the game with some Thrash-y speed passages inside the Black metal structure. "Reflection" also has this primitive Thrash aggression in the vein of the first records of SODOM or HELLHAMMER with raw guitar riffs and a frantic guitar solo. The final track "She is Calling Me (I.War, II.Death, III.Redemption)" is the longest one in "Veneration". It starts with some female screaming (I guess the same girl that sang in the beginning) and continues with the same formula that VIRCOLAC were using in the previous tracks - dirty DARKTHRONE-type guitars and constant tempo changes from slow to blasting fast.

"Veneration" isn't a bad album but what it lacks is something to make it stand out among the thousands of similar bands worldwide. VIRCOLAC are a talented band and only time will tell how far they can go.