Having taken their first steps with a four-song, 21-minute demo nearly three years ago, the part-Finnish, part-U.S. band Veriluola are taking a very big next step with the May release of their debut album Cascades Of Crimson Cruor via Nameless Grave Records.

This duo — guitarist/bassist Santeri and guitarist/vocalist Malus — obviously used the intervening time very productively. It was already evident from their debut demo that the band desired to root their creative expressions in a by-gone time when stout fences hadn’t yet been erected between now-well-defined extreme metal genres. But the new album makes this even more obvious.

The new Veriluola songs effortlessly intertwine strains of black metal, death metal, thrash, and what we now label “classic heavy metal” as if they were all born together as brood from the same monstrously regal mother and feel their kinship instead of warring against each other for attention.

In addition to the kind of songwriting that makes that possible, the album also shows significant attention to detail. None of the songs feel hastily thrown together, but instead sound carefully plotted and fully realized, even though at the time you hear them they’re reflexively captivating… and feral… and sometimes forlorn… and sometimes downright heroic. You’ll get a strong sense of what we’re trying to describe in the song we’re premiering today — the aptly named “Regal Barbarism“. Continue reading »