Band:	Watain
Album:	Trident Wolf Eclipse
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	January 05, 2018
A review by:	nikarg

01. Nuclear Alchemy
02. Sacred Damnation
03. Teufelsreich
04. Furor Diabolicus
05. A Throne Below
06. Ultra (Pandemoniac)
07. Towards The Sanctuary
08. The Fire Of Power
09. Antikrists Mirakel [bonus]

Trve and kvlt black metal alert: with three magnificent releases under their belt (Casus Luciferi, Sworn To The Dark and Lawless Darkness), the 20-year-old Swedish act of satanolatry - aka Watain - unleash their new demon, Trident Wolf Eclipse.

The band took their sweet time to deliver something new after their 2013 record, which was bashed by many fans who cried out "sell-out". The more experimental approach and the exploration of previously untouched territory in the conflict-ridden The Wild Hunt has been completely abandoned in Trident Wolf Eclipse, which finds Watain displaying their most vicious and angry self.

From the first seconds of "Nuclear Alchemy" the group states the intent to produce music that will sever heads with raw and unstoppable battering. "Sacred Damnation" continues the hellstorm by bombarding the listener with one belligerent riff after another, while "Teufelsreich" has a noticeable Dissection vibe and also strongly reminds of Mayhem's "Life Eternal". If you are looking for a softer, mood-shifting curveball, such as "They Rode On" (which was excellent by the way), I am afraid you will have to look elsewhere. Trident Wolf Eclipse is a 35-minute filthy and hateful black metal disciple.

The album's brevity, uniformity and ferocity make it harder to distinguish individual and differentiating features between the songs after the first listen. But if you spin it a few times, Pelle Forsberg's incendiary riffs become more recognizable and Håkan Jonsson's drumming onslaught can be fully appreciated, with the latter being largely prominent in "Ultra (Pandemoniac)". You are also bound to crawl into a corner after enduring the blackened, time-changing thrashing of "Furor Diabolicus" and Erik Danielsson's visceral voice in the chorus of "Towards The Sanctuary" will be stuck in your head for days.

The production is relatively clean and crisp for black metal standards so that you can test your soundsystem's decibel limits without worrying about having to face a wall of noise; actually, the louder you play it, the better it sounds.

In a nutshell, Trident Wolf Eclipse is short, direct and straight to the point, but it is also Watain playing it as safe as possible. It is aimed at bringing back the fans that jumped ship after The Wild Hunt and, although not reaching the stellar songwriting quality of the inspired trilogy of albums mentioned in the first paragraph, it is a very respectable return back to roots.

"For it has made me a defier of every law
That robs my kind of liberty and grace
I am he that move in the valleys of the damned
And none shall lessen my pace"