A highly ambitious technical Black Metal first offering from STORMRULER. The band may be new, but its members are no stranger to the world of extreme music, and this clear in the proficiency of the songwriting. The instrumentation is thrilling, full of fantasy, and very heavy. The high-pitched gargled vocals push the music further into the extreme and the songs are divided into chapters through dream like musical sequences dispersed into the album. Of the nearly twenty songs, nine are full on Black Metal, it gives the album lots of atmosphere and character, each one creating a sparse but magical build-up to an epic song.

The first song of the album is a high octane in-your-face warm up in which the skilled instrumentation shines through. Lots of great pacing and changes that keep you engaged, the screams Asberry are ghoulish and mighty. "Age of Steel" is raw, guttural, and thrashy. Here the band blends sections of chaotic instrument bashing with slower, epic, weighty segments. "Blood of the Wolf" supplies more melodic driven Black Metal, feeling like a deeply emotional passage of the story, whilst still being exceptionally heavy.

"Under the Burning Eclipse," the eight-minute titular anthem is the highlight of the album. It feels bathed in fantasy, the hymnal guitar creating endless riffs and the drums, always the perfect accompaniment. Killer double bass sections and flawless blasts, everything feels intentional, no messiness, just a solid combo of Black Metal and flourishes of Death Metal to create a song I'd happily ride into battle to.

Whenever I listen to fantasy or Medieval inspired metal, I am always chasing that feeling I felt the first time I watched the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in Lord of the Rings, and this album achieves that. It's incredibly heavy, whilst also being deeply symphonic and moving. A stunning vocal performance, unrelenting drums and heaps of great riffs, this album has a lot to give.