Nocturnal Sorcery's debut album, The Holy Law in Total Ruin, is a blistering testament to the power of Finnish black metal, full of icy, melodic mastery and unyielding ferocity. Over the course of its 46-minute runtime, the album unfurls nine tracks of hateful yet melodic classicism, each a powerful exploration of the genre’s most brutal and atmospheric traditions. The Holy Law in Total Ruin strikes with precision, offering up concise slices of cryogenic filth that exemplify the rawness and intensity of Finland's black metal legacy.
From the opening track, Nocturnal Sorcery grabs hold of the listener with a masterful balance of speed and atmosphere. The album’s strength lies in its ability to seamlessly blend black metal’s most primal elements with haunting melodies, giving each track a visceral, transcendental feeling. The band's sound is undeniably Finnish in its spirit—dark, cold, and relentless—and they march with pride on the bones of black metal’s forebears.
Tracks like Blackhearted Angel’s Retribution and Thy Primordial Flame are standouts, presenting a raw, uncompromising vision of black metal. Fast, furious, and unrelenting, they offer a deep dive into the darkest corners of the genre, a celebration of pure, unrefined chaos. In contrast, tracks like Fatum Nostrum offer moments of controlled intensity, showing Nocturnal Sorcery’s ability to craft melodies that haunt the listener long after the music fades.
While the album features moments of cinematic grandeur, such as the longer, atmospheric outro, it is the relentless energy and the band's commitment to raw, destructive power that truly defines The Holy Law in Total Ruin. It's an album that encapsulates everything great about Finnish black metal—an exploration of dark, melodic beauty wrapped in an unyielding blanket of frostbitten aggression. March on the bones of the old with Nocturnal Sorcery, because when the dust settles, there’ll be The Holy Law in Total Ruin!
