Review by Michael on September 25, 2026.

A mysterious swampy forest, two black-robed guys holding a mysterious thing in their hands – all that sounds like a cool black metal cover, doesn't it? If only there wasn't the colour of the mysterious thing and the logo: pink! What the hell? I looked up the meaning of this colour, and apparently it stands for gentleness, harmony, and affection. Hm, that sounds pretty, er, let's say unusual for black metal. Let's hope the music isn't that way.

So, with the first ambient sounds, you get some nice memories of bands such as Bal-Sagoth or Summoning, and with the first guitar tunes, the impression is reinforced. Slightly hypnotic and combined with some double-layered harsh black metal vocals, the first song, "Bathing In The Sap Of The Moonflower," has quite an impact on the listener. This is really good-quality black metal, just like the stuff that was cool to listen to in the mid-'90s. What makes the track quite entertaining is the rather unpredictable balance between harsh double-blast attacks and melodic intermezzos, creating a very dense and mysterious atmosphere on "Weaving Chilling Magical Dreamworlds," released a few months ago by Naturmacht Productions.

Keeping up the mysterious aura, the guys continue delivering a mix of dungeon synth and infernal black metal on the other tracks. The shortest track, "Stars Of Ruin," is perhaps also the heaviest one on the album, with some more riffing that tends towards death metal here and there. Especially the slower parts remind me of some brutal death metal stuff and don't fit that well into the overall picture. Okay, it is only five minutes long, so it's easy enough to skip.

Apart from that annoying experimental song, the rest is absolutely listenable stuff. Sometimes the musical ideas sound a little generic, especially when it comes to the drumming, but for a debut album, it is quite fine. What I personally like are these sci-fi sounds that may remind you of the good old X-Files, when the aliens were running through dark tunnels while Mulder and Scully were hunting them. It adds another quite creepy and mysterious effect to the music.

"Collapse Of The Cosmos" and the final song, "Eyes Through The Speculum," are perhaps the highlights on "Weaving Chilling Magical Dreamworlds". These tracks, with their calm acoustic mid-sections/openings, let you dream and wander through your own mind if you allow yourself to let go. Both are tracks to calm down and rest for a while before "Eyes Through The Speculum" brutally brings you back down to earth when the guitars and drums kick in. Again, the drums are a little annoying here because they sound quite artificial and unnecessarily brutal.

Overall, Astral Alchemy's debut has turned out to be a good piece of atmospheric black metal with some flaws that I have already mentioned. I guess they still have some room for improvement, but nevertheless, the album is quite enjoyable.

The production sounds pretty good as well – not too thin and not overproduced. I guess they have done a good job here, too. If you like atmospheric stuff with dungeon synth elements (which don't go too overboard), you should give this band a listen.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10