Band:	Vallendusk
Album:	Fortress Of Primal Grace
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	March 30, 2018
A review by:	RaduP

01. The Presences
02. In Reverie
03. Coronation
04. At The Heart Of The Storm
05. Eons
06. Higher Ground
07. The Shield

This may have something to do with the fact that they hail from Indonesia, but Vallendusk's Fortress Of Primal Grace is among the warmest black metal albums I've heard.

Don't be fooled by the atmospheric black metal label attached to this album; Fortress Of Primal Grace has more in common with Be'lakor and Insomnium than Summoning or Agalloch. What little there is in atmosphere is mostly focused on the airy and surprisingly upbeat feeling. Now, of course, Vallendusk is still a black metal band, but with each album they seem to push the album to the warmest direction without sounding too "gaze" or "post".

So while atmosphere isn't as emphasized on as you might be led to believe, Vallendusk are incredibly melodic, which you might have guessed by my associating them with MELODIC death metal bands. At its core, Fortress Of Primal Grace is a melodeath record with black metal blasts, some tremolo-picking here and there, and vocals that are undeniably black metal. Add to that mix a bit of power metal flavour and some folk metal twang, and you're left with some common ground for both fandoms to share their love for music, and somehow the negative cheese of black metal and the positive cheese of power metal negate each other on this record.

The final sound feels truly mesmerizing and grandiose at most times. Sure, there's some odd section here and there, but most times the magic isn't broken. Once you get past the questionably cramped production, the overly long runtime, the fact that it doesn't bring much new to the last records, you'll find an incredibly wholesome record with a lot of replay-ability.