In mid-June of last year we had the opportunity to premiere a video for a song from Ur eld och aska (“out of fire and ashes”), the then-forthcoming third album by the Swedish melodic black metal band Golgata, which was subsequently co-released by Satanath Records and Ketzer Records.
As we wrote then, the album (as suggested by its title) “is a journey through fire and ash but it’s also a journey through time, inspired by the history and natural surroundings of the dark, forested region that gave birth to this duo. It has the capacity to scathe the senses in raw and unbridled fashion, but it’s equally powerful in its capacity to mesmerize and to transport listeners away from modernity and into a much older age, creating grim and haunting visions of yearning and sorrow.”
We now have an opportunity to revisit the album, and to introduce it to people who might have overlooked it, through our premiere of a lyric video for its title track.
Many of the songs on Ur eld och aska are indeed capable of producing a spellbinding effect on listeners, and the title song is one of those, but it also presents another side of Golgata‘s songwriting. It’s ravaging and glorious in its grim and grievous permutations.
Immediately the drums and bass pound like big pistons, and the guitars rake and ring, twisting and wailing, creating moods of tension and despair. It’s an electrifying start, followed by riffing that roils and vocals that snarl with a serrated edge. As in the case of two other tracks, this one also benefits from the appearance of guest singer Mari Biäre Howerdal, whose heroic and harmonized singing gives the music an air of the ancient.
And in addition to all these sensations, the music also comes across as warlike, and even medieval.
For those who are just discovering Golgata, their history of releases began in 2015, but the duo of S. (guitars) and Niclas Ankarbranth (vocals, guitars, bass, drums) began writing their first songs back in 1994. As their recorded output has evolved across a trio of EPs and now three albums, they have created music that has moved in more melodic and atmospheric directions, but without abandoning the raw and aggressive intensity that has marked the traditions of Swedish black metal since the beginning.
The album Ur Eld Och Aska is available from the labels on jewel-case CD editions with an 8-page booklet, as well as digitally. We’ve include a full stream of the album below.
ORDER:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat353-golgata-ur-eld-och-aska-2022
https://ketzer-records.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.ketzer-records.de/shop_2/de/
GOLGATA:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063876795210