AURIFEROUS FLAME. “The Insurrectionists and the Caretakers.” Issued via True Cult Records on November 8, 2024. First, I gotta say I love the production values of this album. We’re talking stripped down, cold-cellar-with-one-mic-way-over-in-the-corner-just beyond-the-pentagram-etched-in-blood recording, which, if you’re doing Black Metal, is really the only way to go. Next, I can barely pronounce the name . . . a plus for me. Black Metal bands should punish everything, including the tongue that tries to invoke them. Also, I love the unnecessarily long title for a three-track album. Lastly, related to the third point, I love that two of track names are in the title, but the last one isn’t. To be clear, I say none of this in jest. I like this band and this album for all these reasons . . . and also because it’s some pretty good fucking Black Metal.

“The Insurrectionists and the Caretakers” is the third full-length album Ayloss has released under the AURIFEROUS FLAME banner. The first leaned toward the Atmospheric side of the BM spectrum; the second to the Blackened Thrash side. It is only befitting then that this third offering is positioned right at the nexus of those two extremes.

As noted, there are only three tracks on this album, but it still has a runtime of over 30 minutes. True, his shortest to date (not counting the EP version of “The Great Mist Within”), but still fairly hefty. You get the idea that Ayloss had something to say and 30 minutes, 20 seconds was the exact amount of time required to say it. Thematically, the album relays a narrative that stays true to the Red & Anarchistic Black Metal (RABM) mantra of political/social/cultural upheaval through long form division—e.g. slow, deliberate, and painfully calculated.

“The Insurrectionist” comes in at north of 15 minutes. This track takes us through multiple movements, complex and intricate, savage and subtle. My favorite track on the album, which is a good thing as it makes up a full half. “The Caretakers” is brutal Thrashy BM. All six minutes. Okay, it does have some symphonic flourishes at the end which gives the track an epic thrill. “An Oration to the Storm” gets us back to that nexus I mentioned earlier: One-part Blackened Thrash, one-part Atmospheric.

Full sum: “The Insurrectionists and the Caretakers” is an intriguing ride. Not sure how I feel about the whole RABM thing, I mean as an agenda, but I don’t think that matters a whole lot to whether the album has merit or not. I mean, I love Lovecraftian BM and I have never once tried to summon Cthulhu. With that said, for all the Extreme Black Metal true believers out there, I highly recommend this one.