Flame Within Flame

Sargeist - “Flame Within Flame” 2025

This is why we do it… This is why we indulge in Black Metal, whether it be from an Enthusiast’s or a Journalist’s standpoint. Sargeist is back! And along with their new album, “Flame Within Flame”, comes a rejuvenated lineup. The addition of longtime Horna vocalist, Spellgoth, on bass and Nur-i-siyah behind the kit has fanned the Sargeist flame into an inferno. The blackest flame; one that has burned with austerity since the band’s inception. Sargeist is rightfully accredited with the release of some of the international scene’s most coveted records: “Satanic Black Devotion”, “Disciple of the Heinous Path” and “Let the Devil In”. The latter? In my opinion, THE greatest Black Metal album to have ever been unlleashed. No matter the lineup, no matter the circumstances, visionary, Shatraug, and Sargeist’s thirst for crafting the most precious Dark Art of Black Metal has proven to be unquenchable. Undisputed! Undeniable...

The Finnish Black Metal scene has produced the most elite BM artists and bands, from Sargeist to Horna and Satanic Warmaster, lest we forget about its progenitors: Archgoat, Impaled Nazarene and Barathrum. From top to bottom and from inside out, the proudest scene, even when compared to the Norwegians, even when compared to the Swedes and to the Greeks. On May 28, Sargeist - the cream and the standard of Finnish Black Metal will release their sixth volume, “Flame Within Flame”, via World Terror Committee.

And right away, the melody like the blackest sorcery envelopes my consciousness, as the opening track, “An Eternal Dream Beyond the Accursed Portent”, unfolds like a hypnotist’s pendulum in sway; lulling me into a trance state. Eyes half shut and just absorbing every second of what I’ve been waiting six years for. The rhythm like the heartbeat of The Beast thumping away the misery of existence. Production quality is spacious and stripped-down to perfection. A specimen of wise engineering in action: beholden to tradition, indicative of genre trueness and textured like an ages-olde tapestry. Dialing up the intensity now during the titular track. With desperation and urgency does it play. Engrossed in ritual or gazing yearningly upon the moonlit night. Enraptured by its energy and in awe of its beauty. “Flame Within Flame” feels like a revisitation of 2010’s “Let the Devil In”, just roughed and bolder. Heartily founded by the rhythm section and ethereally atmosphered by the guitars; a blessed communion of phases that penetrate the soul; igniting an enthralling feeling inside akin to the most diabolical Satanic energy, His energy - the Darkest One.

Midway through, we take in “Ordained and Adorned”, we experience the classic Sargeist experience and lose ourselves in it. Those rolling melodies and finessed yet empowered cadences that we’ve come to adore over the years, making their impact on a spiritual level. It’s in the sacredness of the night and it’s in the mystification of its enrapturing call where we find ourselves now. Strike up the torches! Let us navigate the shadows under slivered moon on this, the eve of the blackest spells. Spells to rouse great spirits from out of their Aeons-long slumber into our unworthy presence. Bow to this album…

You can’t compare Sargeist to any other band, not even to Horna. It would be a slight against their legend. The Black Coffin Coven just doing what they do best here, and that is Black Metal of the genre-defining consort. It doesn’t get better than this. “Flame Within Flame” is a definitive work of classicism that will assuredly appease even the most curmudgeonly purist and most certainly the Apprentice who has just begun his Black Metal journey. One for the ages! Such a meaningful record - a testament to the undying passion and to the iron will of Shatraug. “Flame Within Flame” is destined for timelessness, for reverence. All hails be unto Sargeist! A perfect record from top to bottom…

10/10

~Jeger