Despite personally making himself a pariah to the entire metal community, the (unnamed for fear of cancellation) Lord Voldemort of Norwegian black metal and deliverer of 23 stab wounds to Euronymous did make some undeniably powerful, stirring music in his heyday and, 30-odd years later, that influence is still felt. By way of evidence, I present Old Castles and their first full-length (following 13 splits, demos and boxed set releases), Sarcophagical Lament of the Past. That description alone should prepare you for the album: thick, syrupy reverb threading through primal rhythms and inhuman vocals on top of a foundation of treble-rich, gain-heavy guitar bombast, plus a fair dose of funereal dungeon synth droning. Or in other words, raw black metal the way it should be – straight out of the...