HULDER
'Verses In Oath'
Released February 9th, 2024
LP / CD / TAPE / DIGITAL
www.20buckspin.com/hulder
20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album...
1. An Elegy (0:00)
2. Boughs Ablaze (1:40)
3. Hearken The End (7:24)
4. Verses In Oath (14:36)
5. Lamentation (19:14)
6. An Offering (20:19)
7. Cast Into The Well Of Remembrance (23:04)
8. Vessel Of Suffering (28:17)
9. Enchanted Steel (32:13)
10. Veil Of Penitence (36:00)
The hauntingly grandiose new Hulder album ‘Verses in Oath’, created during the dreariest cold months of the Northwest winter, constitutes the most majestic, untamed manifestation thus far in the band’s journey of conquest, as new territory is put to flame and conquered by sword and shield.
A pivotal 2022 saw Hulder release ‘The Eternal Fanfare’, a 5 track mini-album, marking a new phase in the project’s rapid development. Further to Hulder’s audial ascendency, the band set the live stage ablaze, touring widely in North America throughout the year and into 2023, which brought the band to European shores for the first time as well.
Spurred on by these noble victories the ground was prepared for the immensity of ‘Verses in Oath’. Tracked by Hulder in the Northwest, the mix and master was entrusted to cult legend Ahti Kortelainen of Tico Tico Studios in Finland, whose overwhelming list of credits stretch back decades to include Barathrum, Belial, Impaled Nazarene and Moonsorrow among countless others. The result is both unsparingly savage and wistfully evocative; black blood on white snow.
The ancient sorrow-filled melancholy and seething spirit that are the essence of ‘Hearken The End’ permeate the entire album, by now a fundamental detail in Hulder’s identity where roots run deep in long forgotten soil. And whilst the slashing cruelty and torn flesh of ‘Vessel of Suffering’ and ‘Enchanted Steel’ embrace a predatory barbarism, it is the joining of all those elements that places ‘Verses in Oath’ in the timeless pantheon of Black Metal’s most strident lineage.
While Black Metal has evolved into myriad offshoots and subgenres to the point of incomprehension, Hulder is resolutely steeped in the genre’s destructive preeminence, rituals and traditions, carrying the torch of its origins and heritage. And still ‘Verses in Oath’ astonishes with the malevolent spirit of creative autonomy and individual freedom essential to reach the genre’s exalted heights.
Hulder - Guitars, Vocals, Synth
Necreon - Bass
CK - Drums
All music and lyrics by Hulder
Recorded at De Pestkerk Studios, Jan - March 2023
Drums recorded at The Underworld Studios January 2023
Mixed and mastered by Ahti Kortelainen at Tico Tico Studios, June 2023
Photography by Liana Rakijian
Illustrations by Mfaxii
Logo by D. Andersson
Layout by Dan Fried
DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR 2024
Hulder, Worm, Devil Master, Necrofier
2/21: Roseville, CA - Goldfield Trading Post
2/22: Oakland, CA - Thee Stork Club
2/23: Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
2/24: San Diego, CA - Brick by Brick
2/25: Mesa, AZ -The Nile
2/27: Austin, TX -Empire Control Room
2/28: Dallas, TX - Trees
3/01: Atlanta, GA -The Masquerade
3/02: Orlando, FL - The Abbey
3/03: Miami, FL - Gramps
3/05: Greensboro, NC - Hangar 1819
3/06: Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage
3/08: Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
3/09: Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Monarch
3/10: Boston, MA - The Middle East
3/12: Pittsburgh, PA - Preserving Underground
3/13: Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
3/14: Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
3/15: Chicago, IL - Reggies
3/16: St. Louis, MO - Red Flag
3/17: Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
3/18: Denver, CO - HQ