Varathron: Walpurgisnacht (1995)

Just two years after releasing His Majesty at the Swamp, Varathron released their follow-up album, but it sounds like much more time has passed.  That is how different the band sounds on this release.  It is not as if they have made a complete change, the band is still very obviously Varathron, but they have evolved.

The first sign of this is the return of some blazing speed with the much more traditional black metal-sounding "Tleilaxu (The Unborn Child)".  There are still elements of the Hellenic sound here, but this is much more Swedish or Norwegian in tone with a bulldozing riff and shrieked vocals.  Varathron appears to have returned on the second track, with a sound much more in line with their prior album, including the guitar tone that is so synonymous with this scene.  But then things get a little weird.

"The Dark Hills" is essentially a gothic metal track, sounding more like something Moonspell would record, complete with intense, whispered vocals in the beginning and vampiric chanting.  "Mestigoth" is a microcosm of the album as a whole, going from intense black metal, to slower gothic-sounding music and back again.  The album then cycles back around to the much more like their sound on the prior album.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with a band expanding their musical horizons.  I do not want it to sound like I do not enjoy this album.  It is significantly different than the band's legendary debut, but that does not make it bad at all.  Quite the opposite.  Varathron continues to show why they have been so influential on this burgeoning scene (at the time).