Review by Jeger on July 21, 2026.

We've all been searching… We've been searching for meaning in a world where absurdity has become the norm and where everything we once knew of dignity and integrity has become fascist… We attach ourselves to what we feel is sacred as a way to pacify our existence and find purpose. We yearn and toil the heart fervently for some sort of identity when in reality, none of it means a fucking thing… Barreling through the Cosmos at a million miles an hour to what end? One we shall never see. And this is why I couldn't care less about the world. Somewhere along the line during your quest for meaning, you may have encountered the world of Black Metal - a common destination for the searcher, and from within this brave new world, you may have even taken in some Black Metal of the Icelandic kind.

The Icelandic school of BM is a burgeoning movement that has spawned some of the world's most talented Artists/Bands. The Icelandic style - complexly melodious and haunting - a fresher take on the Scandinavian product has taken the international scene by the cajones and none of us are complaining. In 2018 - a different world ago - Vafurlogi was birthed and along with them a new outlook on BM from a thematic perspective. Musically? A hybrid approach that has yielded the familiarity of the '90's Melodic Black Metal era, all the while as contemporary dynamics, superlatives akin to the Icelandic style ensnare and spellbind. On June 26, Vafurlogi released their sophomore LP, "Gneisti Af Eldi Guðs" via NoEvDia/Oration.

There is little commitment here; very little attention to be paid, as each track provides all of the sonic allure you could ask for. And it begins as if in stride with the opening track, "Af Heilagri Heift". Shades of "Far Away from the Sun" era Sacramentum dye into more aggressive tones as the mood shifts halfway through from mystification into a state of debauched BM gluttony: dreadful melodic passages, chilling spoken-word soliloquies and what feel like Mgła-level Nihilistic vibes accompanied by similar riffing output. No corners cut, a comprehensive, no-compromise LP thus far and it's only just begun. A patient like Max Cady type of affair…

The band namesake track happens to also be the most violent cut on the album. Tremolo riffs of all different substances and speeds driven by a variety of aggressive percussive concussions converge into a perfect storm of Icelandic Black Metal - sonic deathwinds sweeping across the valley of your psyche - eliminating any and all doubt now as you begin to understand the depth of the recording: its many nuances but also those big shifts that make their impact in the same way that a major life event might rock your world. Epic is the word… Epic in both tried and groundbreaking senses of the word but not without a certain level of modest '90's charm.

And so the search continues… Our scrambling for some kind of meaning before we transition into the afterlife; leaving this world behind forever. Or if you're like me then you're not much for sentiment anyway and are just along for the ride until the bitter inglorious end. And it will be Black Metal that shall guide me along the way; passing down the wisdom of the Ancients in a world that has forgotten what it is to be still. Solace is the music, serenity is the sound. Here's to the death of what is sacred! To the death of wasted time…

Rating: 8 out of 10