Band:	At The Altar Of The Horned God
Album:	Through Doors Of Moonlight
Style:	Folk, Ambient black metal
Release date:	April 2020

01. A Ka Dua
02. Before The Flames Of Undefiled Knowledge
03. Prayer I
04. Prayer II (Oh Glorious Pan)
05. Perdition In The Oneness
06. Malediction
07. A Circle Of Swaying Leaves

I'm a simple guy. I see a new album released through a label I like, I click.

And this time, the click yielded a pretty damn interesting new discovery. Through Doors Of Moonlight, the latest offering from I, Voidhanger Records, is the debut album of At The Altar Of The Horned God, a new Spanish one manner centered around a sentient, carbon-based lifeform known as Heolstor. The guy actually has a fairly sizable resume of past activity in black metal, but At The Altar Of The Horned God appears to see him embracing a much more epic delivery. Grounded in a folk-heavy, atmospheric foundation and replete with tribal-like percussion and soaring chants about "horned ones," "Pan," and so on, Through Doors Of Moonlight is a highly stimulating and at times oddly relaxing listen that could probably loosely be dubbed "Pagan metal." There's an unusual sense of catchiness in a lot of the melodies at work here as well, especially on a track such as "Before The Flames Of Undefiled Knowledge." Fans of neofolk bands such as Heilung or Wardruna should be right at home here, as there's definitely a similar sense of ambiance and memorability to Heolstor's style.

Perhaps true to Heolstor's roots, however, Through Doors Of Moonlight also has a fair dose of black metal in it as well. Though its usage is more limited than the folky approach that forms the album's bulk, it does go a long way toward making the songwriting more varied and interesting. Mostly midpaced and with a keen focus on harmony, it gets topped off by a lot of the folkier elements that appear elsewhere throughout the album, particularly chants, as on "Prayer I" or "Perdition In The Oneness." It demonstrates that Heolstor is comfortable with (and quite talented at) transitioning the songwriting between the mellow, transcendental folk area and the heavier, more intense black metal delivery, even if it's still the former that seems to dominate.

A lot of albums that merge folk and black metal usually tend to result in a "black metal sprinkled with folk influences" approach, so it's pretty neat to see one that goes almost in the opposite direction with Through Doors Of Moonlight. While it could maybe use a wee bit of refinement with regards to the exact combination of the folk and the black metal elements, overall this is a pretty well written and surprisingly fun debut that shows many signs of more good things to come. Marked for my radar in the future for sure.

Dance with the satyrs and nymphs.