Twenty-one years is a long time to spend on a debut full-length, by anyone’s standards. But that’s exactly what happened with Ymir’s eponymous record for Finland’s Werewolf Records. A 1999 demo (Trollsword), followed by a 2006 EP (Silvery Howling) and then… nothing. Fourteen years of radio silence, while black metal fans subconsciously clamoured for pagan black metal combining the mysticism of Arckanum with the myth-and-legend fire of Immortal – which is pretty much a spot-on comparison for what Ymir has crafted here. So the big takeaway is that Ymir is worth the wait. Being published by Satanic Warmaster’s label carries its own pros and cons: in the Finnish extreme metal paradigm, pros come up on top: here’s a well-respected, established and uncompromising artist in his own right known fo...
