Review by Mladen on August 20, 2023.

In 2004, when Blodulv's second album was originally released, I thought it was charming but wasn't quite sure under what listening circumstances it would give its best. Two years and a nice digipak re-release later, I knew. There are many:

Neighbors wake you up with loud music?

Blodulv.

You want to tell someone to get the fuck out of your room and close the door behind him?

Blodulv.

You want to shatter your eardrums?

Blodulv.

Want to pretend you're a grim necrowinterdemon, even though you're in reality very far from Scandinavia?

Blodulv.

You can even take a scientific approach and look for an album whose frequencies can clean all the undesired vibrations — wait, all vibrations, period — from your living space?

Guess who.

Blodulv ("Blood Wolf" — but the original flows off your tongue so nicely, doesn't it?) were an enigmatic Swedish raw Satanic black metal band, in the finest vein of Darkthrone. Bandmembers were ever-changing and unidentifiable — all I knew about II is that the music was written by Grendel, the lyrics by Aeifur and vocals were done by Nekro. The honorable Mr. Maachinaa was actually an affectionately named drum machine. Who did the rest is unknown, probably because of Blodulv's boasting of "blatantly using certain substances while recording."

The music itself? Arrogant is the word here. The guitar sound is unbelievable — raw, loud and electric, it's the sound of a chainsaw sawing through glass. And if you've ever tried to come up with a simple, true, grim riff — Blodulv put all your efforts to shame. Some riffs are so good yet so simple that it's hard to believe that someone has not thought of them before (personal favorite being the opening one of 'Tyrant').

Add the aforementioned arrogance and you will get a freezing atmosphere with unstoppable gusts of ice shards coming at you. The mid-paced drum beats are elegantly simple and unobtrusive — just as much changes as are necessary, with occasional unexpected crashes and fast bass drum parts (Drum machines don't have two legs but how else do you call double bass drumming?).

The song composition is very much in the "Transilvanian Hunger" style — start with a simple riff, change, work on that, more change and a triumphant return to the initial riff, and it works perfectly and mercilessly. Nekro's thoughtfully displaced (sorry, demented) screams were sharp, full, vicious and distorted, strong enough to turn the music from simple and hypnotic to evil and exciting.

So, feeling necro and needing something to hold in your sweaty hands while dribbling "my preciousss..." repeatedly?

Blodulv.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Felix on August 20, 2023.

Finnish black metal is misanthropic, but this does not mean that split releases are forbidden. Warmoon Lord and Vultyrium therefore join forces and present Pure Cold Impurity. Both “line-ups” consist of only one musician – at least this shows their hostility against mankind.

The man who runs Warmoon Lord is a late supporter of Emperor. He does not deal with complex song structures and innovation is written in small letters, but some keyboard appearances remind me heavily of the Norwegian majesty. Unfortunately, the blurred and rather ill-defined production kills all nuances and sometimes the music seems to be just one fat tone which is killed by its own echo. Okay, the song structures are still identifiable, but this is normally rather a matter of course than a detail which must be praised. Warmoon Lord’s approach is also pretty usual. The lone wolf intends to find the balance between fury and melancholy. Only the short cut 'Magie Et Sange' is focused exclusively on high velocity and total attack. Some rather weird keyboard lines in the background fail to set a contrast, but that’s rather good than bad news.

After all, Warmoon Lord avoid severe mistakes and deliver solid-to-good material. With the exception of the aforementioned song, the tracks are always a bit too long. Despite their general substance, both 'Victory Of Irreverend Might' and 'The Morningstar’s Descent' suffer from too much repetition. Nevertheless, fans of Black Beast and similar combos cannot go totally wrong when it comes to the first half of Pure Cold Impurity.

The man behind Vultyrium has no short intermezzo up his sleeve, he concentrates on three regular tracks. Stylistically, his way of proceeding lies in close proximity to that of Warmoon Lord, but 'Towards The Throne Of Solitude' presents the best melody fragment of the split so far – too bad that it is embedded in many run-of-the-mill sections, where high velocity murders any idea of profound diabolic art. Once again, the production does not shine with clarity and the drums are at risk to get lost in this lumpy soundscape. Thus, we get a lot of standardized black metal with a non-optimal mix. And I guess it’s no surprise as well that the nagging vocals are done with a lot of reverb on it.

'Journey Through Razorwinds' oscillates from brutality to excessive melody lines, but somehow I miss a coherent connection between the single parts of the track. The same goes for individuality – one can listen to this split, it’s pretty okay, but it does not offer a high degree of personality, to say the least. Anyway, both projects achieve the same acceptable quality level and there is probably enough potential for more thrilling tracks. Just give individuality and spirituality a chance and do not only offer the typical stuff from Suomi.

Rating: 6.7 out of 10