Review by Jeger on June 16, 2024.

Since 2014, Norway’s renowned Whoredom Rife have stood atop a most coveted vantage as champions of - say it with me now: true Norwegian black metal. BM for war, for power and for revenge. The duo consisting of V. Einride (all instruments) and K.R (vox), have released four exceptionally rated LP’s - each one a weapon of a recording - gushing much? Definitely… Some artists just get it, and what they get is the ethos and the history, the tales forlorn and the olde Gods! And all tracked into sound by way of genuine, true-to-form Norse BM. On May 31, Whoredom Rife struck up vengeance’ tinder and set ablaze entire kingdoms under the banner of their latest LP, Den Vrede Makt, unleashed via the exclusive Terratur Possessions. 

With Den Vrede Makt, Whoredom Rife cut six tracks clocking in at fifty minutes worth of pure, uncut and quite frankly, intangible black metal: atmosphere looming but never overbearing, a nice balance between smooth paradiddles-driven sequences/blast-beats and the blessed union of harmony & melody. And I’ve only described the opening titular track… Easy on the blast-beats, and I don’t mean less, just like that… down tempo’d and silky smooth to accompany the rolling fluidity of the following cut, 'Fiender', as it propels you wantingly through tremolo passage after mesmerizing tremolo passage. Godlike bellows boom through the blackened, lightning-cracked azure just before hypnotically melodic leads blast you through nightmarish soundscapes where kaaos and all power converge into a sonic upheaval of scorched earth and then! Lull you to sleep… but in a good way. You getting all this? All phases crisp and textured without also sounding sanitized. It feels like you’re right there in studio and just surrounded by the album’s stellar mix. No escape, wouldn’t want to. Ah, 'The Beautiful End Of All'. How some of us long for it and with this cut, you can expect all proper melancholy and somberness like a fucking drill, penetrating through your cortex, driven by jackhammer rhythms and despairing melodies. An epic! A gorgeous end to what’s been an album-of-the-year contender. 

True Norwegian fucking black metal through and through and without a shred of fat to trim. Enchanting yet wretched and heavy yet intoxicatingly melodic. Whoredom Rife - proving once again to be the cream of the contemporary Norwegian black metal scene. Sharpen your steel now and prepare for rage, prepare for revenge! But mainly just elite-level black metal of the traditional but also of the dynamic variety and packaged beautifully as always. Here’s to Norge! Hails to Whoredom Rife… 

Rating: 10 out of 10