Review by Michael on June 11, 2026.

Well, I haven't seen such an ugly cover for a long time, I guess (but at least it's not AI shit and the girl on the grim, sort of horny looking dragon has some nice boobs).

But what lies beyond this, physically the second full-length of Stormkeep called "The Nocturnes Of Iswylm", is some really amazing symphonic black metal stuff.

Their first EP "Galdrum" was already a very cool piece of music and its predecessor "Tales Of Othertime" another cool surprise, is this another giant leap forward in the discography of the Americans?

Keeping the atmospheric black metal clearly in the foreground, you can also recognize a lot of heavy metal influences in their songs. Especially in the opener "The Taste Of Immortal Blood" are a lot of other influences such as Blind Guardian back to their "Tales From The Twilight World"-era. The clear vocals and the catchy choruses are pretty much influenced by the Germans which doesn't mean that it doesn't fit into the whole. It is more an enrichment in the stylistic diversity Stormkeep show here.

But let us come back to the black metal influences a little bit more. Were there already some symphonic stuff on the previous albums, "The Nocturnes Of Iswylm" tops all this. Actually there are so many influences such as old Dimmu Borgir, Limbonic Art, Emperor or Old Mans Child (especially the harsh vocals remind a lot of them in the 90s) which makes the album a feast for everybody who still loves the old symphonic stuff from the mid-90s.

With the aforementioned heavy metal influences comes out a super catchy black metal album with a lot of surprises in the seven compositions. It has a great range from softer passages to furious black metal outbursts but still is quite focused in itself. Nothing appears to be a leftover or something that was baked only half-hearted.

This is quite remarkable because the songs have a running time range from circa five minutes up to almost ten minutes – we all know that there might be some lengths in this case. To be honest, the songs don't appear to be so long while listening to them. They are quite diverse and also very entertaining.

Also the production is quite tight and powerful, sometimes the drums sound a little bit too loud but that's something that can be put aside to find the fault with something on that album. Also, if you have in mind, that Otheyn Vermithrax (vocals, drums, keyboards, guitars) is nobody else than the Blood Incantation drummer Isaak Faulk, this might explain that focus.

After Worm's "Necropalace" this one is another monolithic release in the symphonic black metal scene in 2026 and I guess that the band will gain some new fans with this output.

Rating: 9 out of 10 horny dragons