Darkenhold - A Passage to the Towers... (2016 Reissue) (CD)

Review

It's not quite what one might expect of most French music of its type, hailing from a land of the unusual and surreal sounds of Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Norde, and Peste Noire, but its effective in an entirely different light. You get the same feeling listening to this as you do when the cameras pan across the vast landscapes in fantasy films like Lord of the Rings, or the more moody and minimal majesty of Summoning, though Darkenhöld are somewhat louder and more accessible, cautiously merging each melody within the constriction of its aggressive blast beats or pinnacle climbing keyboards. There's nothing 'silly' about the album, necessarily, but it's a great pleasure to listen through, and I do hope there's not enough backlash against such a strain as this that it will be ignored. - From the Dust Returned 4/5