Deogen | The Graves And Ghosts Of Yore | Iron Bonehead

 

Release Date: 14 November 2025

Format: CD/LP

Genre: Black Metal

Country: USA

Deogen emerged from the American underground with their debut “The Endless Black Shadows Of Abyss” back in 2020, a work that gained a quiet but loyal following among those who cherish the raw and occult side of black metal. The band’s sound has always looked to the shadows of the past, embracing the early European spirit of the genre with a devotion that feels almost ritualistic. With their second full-length, “The Graves And Ghosts Of Yore”, Deogen deepens that devotion, crafting an album that could easily be mistaken for an unearthed relic from the late nineties.

This album moves within a dark, mist-shrouded atmosphere that’s ancient and grim. Guitars hum in a mid-range haze, rough yet strangely melodic, evoking a kind of spiritual ruin. The vocals, deep and echoing, have a demonic tone that matches the ghostly nature of the music’s title. There’s a deliberate restraint in the drumming, creating a sense of ritual movement. At times, faint synths and piano add an unsettling grandeur, casting the whole album in the twilight between sorrow and sorcery.

The production is strikingly vintage, almost defiant in its simplicity. It sounds as if recorded in a crypt, hollow, natural, and steeped in atmosphere. The sound works in full service to the band’s vision of an archaic black metal ceremony. Each song bleeds into the next with consistency, maintaining a balance between aggression and solemnity. The album’s middle stretch, tracks like “Of Abominations To Come” and “Clawing Into Sphere And Sun”, is particularly immersive, where melody hides beneath distortion and spectral ambiance.

Deogen doesn’t chase extremity for its own sake. Their focus lies on mood through repetition and pacing, and the result is hypnotic. It’s an album for those who understand black metal as invocation. There’s only shadowy, cold melody, and the echo of the past whispering through the riffs. “The Graves And Ghosts Of Yore” stands as a faithful continuation of Deogen’s path, unburdened by trends and guided entirely by its own grim light. It’s not made to surprise or impress, but to haunt and persist. The sound may be old, but the intent feels alive.

Score: 7.3

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