I have had many reasons to be grateful to Eisenwald in 2020. I’ve folksy grooved to Osi and The Jupiter, railed with black metal fury at injustice alongside Panzerfaust, and marvelled at the incredible sense of composition shining through Uada’s darkness. And now, to top it off, they have re-released Ceremonial Castings’ 2008 classic, Salem 1692, over an hour of varied, dynamic and (in their own words) “bewitching” black metal. A small caveat, however, before continuing in my praise of this “lost” gem that has, until now, been notoriously hard to get hold of. Despite stemming from the creative maelstrom that is Jake (yes, Uada’s founder) and Nick Superchi this is not USBM in the same vein and should not be compared with the current high flyers of American melodic black metal. Where Uada de...
