Cruel World of Dreams and Fears

Draugveil - “Cruel World of Dreams and Fears” 2025

The ruins of yesterday stand as effigies of an existence that once held meaning. A thriving life that once fostered dreams and ambitions, now a desolate scape where the hope of those salad days of olde is but a whisper echoing through dead forests of regret. Youth is wasted on the young… If only we had those days back, if only we hadn’t wasted them so haphazardly; procrastinating so unwisely; resulting in a now dreadful state of being, fearful even. This familiar Black Metal concept is the essence of “Cruel World of Dreams and Fears” - the debut album by Czechia’s Draugveil - a project that’s been realized through the vision of one individual, one solitary soul who bears the same name. “Cruel World of Dreams and Fears” was released on June 13 independently.

“Cruel World” is similar to Këkht Aräkh’s “Pale Swordsman” LP: familiar rawness in product and similar melodies, just without the Disney vibes. What we have here is something that’s as loathsome as it is breathtaking. A concrete compositional specimen of true Black Metal. I imagine this record being written in solitary by candlelight during the wee hours of the Morn when Spirits are stirring and the night feels as if it is beholden to the one who penned it. A melancholic offering bolstered by monumental grief and a hint of sinister. “Knight Without a Name” is the beginning, and right away, we find ourselves at the record’s will. Captivated by its simplicity yet awed by the melodic nature of the music as it ensnares our willing selves. Engineered to true BM perfection: raw, textured and rich. The album’s cover art exudes classicism, as does its sound; drawing to mind the days of the Second Wave when albums like Burzum’s “Jesus’ Tod” and Judas Iscariot’s “Thy Dying Light” were predominant.

Piano-rich passages during the instrumental interlude, “My Sword Points to the Past”, hit like a lonesome soliloquy just before the ghastly “Wolves Feast on Forgotten Dreams” begins. A misery-drenched album cut that stirs our innards into a state of nausea until more of those blessed melodies ensue - wolves baying the Moon upon this most depressive eve. It’s albums like “Cruel World of Dreams and Fears” that remind us of how Black Metal is supposed to sound. Tearing away at modernity’s thick peel; revealing the succulent meat of the genre. Ravenously devouring its bounty, juices running down our chins…

Further still do we expedite until we absorb the intensity of the aptly titled “Vortex” - a tempest of sound - unrelenting and powerful as it carries over to “When Silence Became My Kingdom”. This Dungeon Synth diamond of a closing track evokes the nostalgia of early Mortiis, all the while as it conjures up images of torchlit catacombs of a past life. Bitter spirits of yore creeping its haunts and groaning their eternal lamentations. What a remarkable album. An accomplishment of genre purity that will kindle a blaze of appreciation within whomever chooses to experience it. Rejoice! For great things are to come out of Draugveil and for those of us who truly appreciate the artistic value of the Great Craft of Black Metal. “Cruel World of Dreams and Fears” - the quintessential Black Metal record. Almost perfect. Hails be!

8.8/10

Experience “Cruel World of Dreams and Fears” by Draugveil right here as presented by Black Metal Promotion:

https://youtu.be/ymBY101fxaU?si=WCxDyydAXz4BOdnC