From their EPK, "NORTHMOON was created by Dodamon in November 2021 to honour the Austrian Black Metal scene from the 90's. DM and Knecht Ruprecht joined the unholy bastion to crush goodness and its worshippers. The album "Shadowlord - My Soft Vision in Blood" is dedicated to Satan himself and to all evil and negativity in this world. It's freezing old school eruptions and atmospheric ice storms are combined to a sinister unity of unique satanic Black Metal." The album contains eight songs.

"Infernal Paths of Sinister Cosmic Devotion" is the first. Following some clean tones, the thick Black Metal sound ensues. The production-often a problem in the genre-is too high on the treble clef. I will never understand why a lot of Black Metal bands don't like the bass guitar strong in the mix. "Jagdpanzer 666" is a little slower in pace, and you can hear the bass notes. The song swings with a mid-tempo rhythm and hasty sounds. The old-school sound is definitely reminiscent of the FWOBM, but the band works in some of their own personality also. "Clandestine Deathwish Ritual" has a somewhat sad and despondent quality amidst the aggressive riffs, turning angry and then returning again. The riff slows towards the end with a more linear groove.

"Black Metal Wolves of Iron and Chaos" features sadder and depressing tones, and this is where the band's personality comes out a little more. The clean vocal chants help this feeling along. The sadness clears out like a passing storm, replaced by horrid and harrowing sounds. "Astral Darkness and Unholy Worship" begins with doleful clean guitars that are marked with reverb. But that same sound returns again, with a very similar pace. One thing that the band isn't very good at, is diversity. "Doomed by Exorcistic Priests" is a decent combination of both raging tones and depressive ones, but the songs are starting to run together a bit. This is my chief complaint with any genre of Metal. If you can't diversify, you are dead in the water.

"Kommando Northmoon" is a short song. The slow pace is somewhat expansive in its reach, when the band isn't intent on destroying the world, which comes too closely thereafter. "Occult Legion of the Abyss" closes the album. Unfortunately, it's more of the same. This wasn't a bad album per se, but it would also not very original. In the band's quest to honor the FWOBM scene of the 90's, they stayed too close to the boundaries of that early sound, and didn't put enough of their own personality into the songs. This is too close to "paint by the numbers" FWOBM. I have said it before and I will say it again-you can pay homage to the forefathers while still creating music that is all your own.