Hulder – Verbolgen
Release Date: 7th August 2026
Label: Season of Mist & 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal
FFO: Emperor, Watain, Dissection, Primordial.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Hulder has carved out a distinct place in the modern black metal landscape, their name synonymous with consistency, and with this latest release, that reputation only continues to grow. While the album never strays too far from the formula that has made the project so successful, in fact focusing primarily on the traits that make Hulder, Hulder, it introduces enough variety to keep things engaging from beginning to end.
One of the aspects I appreciated most was the willingness to change gears throughout the record. The icy tremolo-picked passages you’d expect from a Hulder release are all here, but they’re balanced by slower, dare I say doom-laden riffs that add a welcome sense of weight and atmosphere. Those moments give the album room to breathe and prevent it from becoming a nonstop barrage of blast beats and tremolo picking.
Being a first time listener to the band (no, I have no idea how), the vocals were another pleasant surprise. Going in, I expected the piercing black metal shrieks that I’m usually drawn to, but Hulder leans into a more death metal-inspired growl to offset the raspy, high-pitched tones consistent with black metal. While death metal growls are not typically my preferred vocal style for black metal, they definitely fit the darker, heavier direction of these songs remarkably well. The deeper delivery complements the doomier sections especially, giving the album an oppressive, almost suffocating atmosphere that lingers long after each track ends, the complete antithesis to the portions of the tracks that raise the heart rate simply with a blistering riff.
Production-wise, the album strikes a nice balance between raw and refined. It never loses that cold, underground spirit, but everything has enough clarity to let the riffs and atmosphere shine without sacrificing intensity.
This isn’t an album that tries to reinvent black metal, nor does it need to. Instead, Hulder refines an already strong sound by incorporating enough doom and death metal influence to keep the experience feeling fresh while remaining unmistakably Hulder. Even if I personally would’ve welcomed a higher volume of black metal shrieks, the songwriting and atmosphere more than make up for it.
(4 / 5)
