Ylva De Lune – II
Release Date: 30th June 2025
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackgaze, Shoegaze, Post-Rock, Black Metal.
FFO: Heretoir, Myrkur, Alcest.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Ylva De Lune are back almost 4 years to the day since their debut album I was released and the German blackgaze duo are back with more ethereal, yet beautiful soundscapes layered over a black metal infused current.
II the album sets the scene immediately with opening track Lullaby, opening with an impressive a cappella vocal from the vocalist Ylva showing her ability to bring you into her world while her voice dances around your head. The song slowly builds, changing between more distorted black metal and beautiful shoegaze passages. These opposing sides to the band’s sound interweave effortlessly and never feels like the pace of the song is being stopped without reason. Lullaby also features some of the album’s most impressive keyboard work, adding a feeling of being stuck under an ever-rising tide as the music continues around you.
While the vocals are utilised more like an instrument rather than the focal point of your attention. Where The Willow Tree Grows gives the vocal melodies more time at centre stage, they’re dripping in reverb and sound massive as they consume every element of the track, this placed against the tremolo guitars underneath are a match made in heaven as the track continues to build which is a trick the German duo do all throughout II. Their use of build-ups are expertly deployed across the album’s 7 tracks, even the album’s second last track Epitah immediately begins with a build-up.
II excels when the band are world building and taking you through their journey with impressive soundscapes and guitar work. However, the album begins to repeat a lot of tricks early on, a lot of the lead guitar melodies can feel basic, mostly following along with the chord progression it’s being layered over there are exceptions to the rule like the album’s closer Serenity and especially on Black Stallions. The band show that they’re capable of expanding and growing and this could be something that is shown more on III, but some stand out guitar moments would have elevated parts of the album that need that extra push. This is a similar issue with a lot of the vocal melodies, while blackgaze isn’t known for its hooks, it does have a lot of standout moments, just as I was beginning to worry that Ylva De Lune might not have that top of the mountain top moment Black Stallions started and steals the show.
Black Stallions takes all the things the band have shown and does them to the highest level, riffs and atmosphere expertly intertwine while the keyboards add layers of texture and the vocals take the album to new heights, you hang onto Ylva’s every word especially as the bridge breaks everything down leaving her vulnerability for all to see before the band build everything back up. The guitar tone even feels like it’s got more heft than the others and the riffs have some extra weight behind them as the song goes along, Black Stallions shows that after 4 years away the band have grown and have even more space to do the same again in the future.
Considering that Ylva De Lune only formed five years ago is an impressive feat when you consider they have released two albums back-to-back that have gone from strength to strength, and can hopefully carry on that trend going forward. The band are experts at visualising every idea they put onto record, and the interplay between the melody and the rest of the band are luscious. With some more time away refining the vocal passages and pushing all their ideas as far as they do on Black Stallions, the band could be on the cusp of something special, all the seeds are planted.
(3.5 / 5)
