Sworn - A Journey Told Through Fire

Good melodic black metal in highest level , came as surprise to me, Enjoyable music.

I wasn't expecting this at all, it has to be one of the best meloblack albums I've heard this year, I mean, what a great release, it's so full of energy, ferocity and memorable melodies and has some phenomenal guitar work. The best way I can describe this is like a mix of Mgła, Shylmagoghnar and Dissection but with a unique melancholic touch.

I'm all over this. I've been waiting all year for an album which hits my taste sweet spot and this is it.

This album is frickin' awesome. Meloblack done right!

There is such a cosy apocalyptic feeling of cosmic longing to this album that I was always hoping to find in black metal but never did... until now.
The guitar work is superb, those leads, harmonies and solos are nothing short of breathtaking.
The inclusion of keyboards is always tasty and adds layers of depth.
Somehow this record gave me a Iotunn vibe, which still doesn't detract from its uniqueness.

Nothing wrong here! Some quality songwriting and excellent performance. Instant second listen

What a Blast ! Thank you. I hope CD will be out soon i need to support this. As for JUNE for me it is a suprise of the year. Another great album from Norway this year. After the IMMORTAL

Oh I like this a lot. It’s refreshing to listen to a meloblack album that has more of a crushing atmosphere than the usual more icy ones.

Easy 9/10, AOTY so far for me!

Very Similar to Immortal's "All Shall Fall" melody Wise.

Just discovered this band recently

This is epic, melodic, atmospheric and just top quality material.

Written by Shmelevod on 21.06.2023 at 21:15

What a great album! It sounds more cold and more atmospheric than their previous one, I'd say they've introduced some more modern, Gaerea-style BM here.

Interesting that you've mention Gaerea here, which I am aligning with Anorexia Nervosa a lot. Also wanna add Wormlight to that list.

A very enjoyable album, good combination of melody/atmosphere.

They are unsigned and rank 1661 on this site. Everyone should listen to this album, with last album alone they should be in top 200.
Guitar work borders on masterpiece.

I love it. Every song is a banger and also a it has very good replay value (Godless Domain specially).

Some moments reminded me of Wormwood's latest "Arkivet".

Absolutely loved this album. Incredible melodies and a good atmosphere all the way through. Are their other albums as good as this one ?

Yes...this is it....this is my Aoty.....and one among the top 100 of all time list....

'A Godless Domain' is nothing less than a classic.

Very nice meloblack. First listen did nothing for me, but second has caused it to shoot right up on my list.

Still struggling with this, not yet aoty stuff for me, but there are a few more months to go stil...

Written by DarkWingedSoul on 13.08.2023 at 14:48

Still struggling with this, not yet aoty stuff for me, but there are a few more months to go stil...

don't make the mistake of trying to align your personal ranking with the one on this website. this community has a very particular music taste and overlooks great albums all the time. I'm just here to find out about albums I might have otherwise missed but I stopped valuing the rankings on this website a long time ago.

just saying this as you said "still struggling with this" which makes it sound like you feel there is something wrong with your personal assessment being different than that of the majority here...

Hm, i know, but when hardly anything from the top albums makes it into my personal top.... its kinda strange.

Written by DarkWingedSoul on 17.08.2023 at 21:22

Hm, i know, but when hardly anything from the top albums makes it into my personal top.... its kinda strange.

Don't worry. I have the same thing. Two years in a row (2021, 2022), none of my votes for the MS Awards won. And, this year, the only album of the top 20 that I find amazing is Fires In The Distance

Written by F3ynman on 17.08.2023 at 21:44

Written by DarkWingedSoul on 17.08.2023 at 21:22

Hm, i know, but when hardly anything from the top albums makes it into my personal top.... its kinda strange.

Don't worry. I have the same thing. Two years in a row (2021, 2022), none of my votes for the MS Awards won. And, this year, the only album of the top 20 that I find amazing is Fires In The Distance

same for me, but also that is quite down my list

Written by DarkWingedSoul on 17.08.2023 at 21:22

Hm, i know, but when hardly anything from the top albums makes it into my personal top.... its kinda strange.

I wouldn't worry about it. Nothing from my top 10 this year is anywhere near the overall top 20 (except Insomnium)

I just can't, A Godless Domain is a perfect song, on par with Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and other top classic songs. To bad it won't be viewed as such in couple 10 years.
Wouldn't be much if it ended at 5:30, but they made an epic ending to it.
I probably have 30 listens by now, whole album almost 20 times.

I don't know about this one. Performance wise it's all great, but I don't know about the music itself. It's good, but nothing I haven't heard many times before. If I played these songs randomly mixed with bunch of other meloblack songs from some other popular bands I probably couldn't tell the difference most the time. But maybe that's just me.

Still myy 2023 AOTY this one, keep coming back to it. Melodic black metal perfection. Flows so well, dark in parts, atmospheric throughout with some absolutely kick ass solos thrown in.

The wait was fucking worth it. What an amazing album.

There weren't any surprises with this album, they didn't re-invent anything, not a lot of experimentation. This album is straight forward and done very well. If you like melodic black metal, this will scratch the itch.

Reminds me a bit of Frost - Winterblood (2021) for some reason. Probably just because both albums contain a ton of memorable riffs without compromising the brutality.

Great album!