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