Onirik Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

ONIRIK: “CURLING SERPENTS UNDER STONE”

Jul 012025

(Today we present a review by our Norway-based contributor Chile of a new album by the Portuguese black metal band Onirik, out now on I, Voidhanger Records.)

Imagination is a wonderful thing. As far as mind goes, it’s faster than the speed of light, stronger than a gravitational pull of a black hole, and can jump over mountains and oceans with a single leap. Without it, the world would be a completely different place and our lives much poorer, or as the great American author Henry David Thoreau put it: “This world is but a canvas to our imagination”.

With that said, we can all agree (well, we would) that out of all the music genres in existence today, metal is the one relying the most on imagination and the endless possibilities it brings. Merging influences, crossing the boundaries of genres, or just applying new formulas to old experiments are just but a taste of the wonders that metal can unleash on to the world.

So, finally coming to the point, let our imagination take us to that faraway land known as Portugal and to one of its premier black metal bands, Onirik. Forging the dark matter with vision and dedication, the band (or more precisely, Gonius Rex, the mastermind behind it) has been a purveyor of ritualistic celebrations for over twenty years now, with no sign of stopping soon. Continue reading »

AN NCS DOUBLE PREMIERE: ONIRIK (“MELODIES OF REFLECTION AND PRAISE”) AND NOITE (“A COR DO FOGO”)

Premieres 1 Response »

Aug 242020

We have a rare double premiere for you today. We have combined them because the songs come from two albums that will be released on the same day (September 25th) by the same label (I, Voidhanger Records), and because the artist behind the two bands is the same man — the Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Gonius Rex.

One of these projects is Onirik, and the track we’re presenting today comes from Onirik’s fifth full-length, The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. The other project is Noite (the Portuguese word for “night”), and the song we now present is the title track from Noite’s debut album A Cor do Fogo (“the color of fire”).

Both songs are fascinating, and together they are even more fascinating because they are so different from each other in their style — though they are kindred spirits in their inspirations. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CAULDRON, CORPUS CHRISTII, EPPING FOREST, GRIMFAUG, IMBER LUMINIS, ONIRIK, STREAMS OF BLOOD, VELDES, YPOKOSMOS, ZIFIR

SHADES OF BLACK 7 Responses »

Mar 122017

I guess I’ll be surprised if anyone remembers, especially those of you who lost an hour of sleep last night, but a week ago I began what I said would be a two-part SHADES OF BLACK post. Before I could finish Part 2 for Monday I came across a bunch of new songs, and that collection became Part 2. I still want to recommend the songs that I had picked for the original Part 2. They’re all in here, a week later than I had planned, but of course I’ve added a few newer tracks, too. A whopping ten songs in all.

With one exception, all of these tracks are from albums or EPs that haven’t been released yet, and I’ve organized them in alphabetical order by band name. I have a separate collection of recent full releases, and if time permits I’ll try to pull those together before the usual tornado of the work week begins spinning tomorrow.

CAULDRON

To begin, I have “Severe Martyrdom“, a severe song from Regnum-Phobos by the Spanish band Cauldron. This is their second album and it will be released by Darkness Within on March 14th. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ONIRIK — “INVOCATION AND DEFIANCE”

Premieres 3 Responses »

Sep 232015

We metalheads may be different in some important ways from the people who don’t share our passion for abrasive, aggressive music, but in some ways we’re not so different: In our listening, many of us find comfort in what is familiar, and sometimes instinctively shy away from bands who have stepped off the usual beaten paths. But sometimes when that happens, the results can be exciting, even if the music is different and challenging on first listen.

Casket Dream Veneration, the new album by the Portuguese band Onirik, maintains a spiritual devotion to the traditions of black metal, but the band are definitely following their own path, and the music is a rewarding experience in part because it does sound different from much of the music that now travels under the black flag.

Take, for example, the track from the album that we’re premiering today: “Invocation and Defiance”. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (Part 2): MORDBRAND, HOODED MENACE, OAK PANTHEON, ONIRIK, EARTHSIDE

Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Aug 272015

One of these days I’ll learn that part-time, half-witted metal bloggers shouldn’t make promises about what they’re going to do. Yesterday I wrote that I would post two round-up’s of new music in an effort to partially catch up on all the new songs that had emerged since the last one I compiled five days earlier, but that obviously didn’t happen.

However, thanks to Austin Weber, we do have two today, with this being the second one. One silver lining to the cloud of my tardiness is that since yesterday I discovered one more item worth recommending to you — and it’s the first one in this post.

MORDBRAND

For those who haven’t religiously followed my scribbling over the last few years, I will confess that I’m a slavish fan of Sweden’s Mordbrand. It’s not that they have any compromising photos of me, it’s because they’ve been so consistently good at what they do. Out of all the outstanding songs they’ve released, perhaps my favorite track is “That Which Crawls” from their 2014 album Imago — and today they released a video for that very song. Continue reading »