FROM THE VASTLAND

THE SETUP

Before we dive into what I consider the best black metal album of the year, I want to clarify what a 10/10 means on this site. Context helps both you and me.

A perfect score on Allfather-Metal isn’t an admission that an album is flawless, nor does it imply the music is at its absolute peak, where nothing better can ever be created. In extreme metal, and black metal in particular, the godfathers of the second wave of Norwegian black metal never intended to create what would later become masterpieces of perfection; they simply tried to capture pure, unhinged Nordic atmosphere as they felt it. To these old, somewhat compromised ears, a 10/10 represents absolute artistic fulfillment. In my estimation, it means the artist set out with a distinct, uncompromising vision and executed on every aspect of it with absolute mastery, where every single riff, blast beat, vocal pattern, lyric and all the other minutiae make perfect sense and serve a purpose to the larger narrative; not a single, solitary second feels out of place or contrived.

Part of what makes From The Vastland‘s latest album, Servant Of Ahriman, so perfect is the seamless blend of frigid second-wave black metal (the hallmark of every From The Vastland album) with the ancient, sinister lore of Persian mythology and, now, the sounds of that same time period (more on that later). Rather than punishing you from start to finish, it pulls you into its world of converging forces, and never lets go.

We don’t hand out perfect scores lightly. But when a record accomplishes everything it set out to do AND MORE, anything less than a perfect score would be dishonest. You know it the second it invades your ears. You can feel every drop of blood, every bead of sweat, and every tear shed as if they were your own. It stops being something you just listen to and becomes an experience that consumes you entirely, even after the last note fades off into oblivion.

THE REVIEW

The history of From The Vastland is complicated and sordid, to say the least. Getting its start in Tehran, Iran, in 2010 by its visionary, Sina Winter, the band (which, at this point, consisted solely of Sina) was eventually forced to relocate to Norway under the threat of severe personal and legal risks, as creating black metal in Iran is strictly outlawed and heavily criminalized by the state. Sina’s plight was well documented in the film Blackhearts (2016), directed by Fredrik Horn Akselsen and Christian Falch, an acclaimed Norwegian documentary that offers a rare human look into the global reach of black metal.

Over sixteen years and ten full-length albums later, From The Vastland has certainly expanded its global reach by leaps and bounds. As he adapted to life in Norway, Sina’s recorded output from 2013’s Temple Of Daevas through 2024’s Tenebrous Shadow was, by all measures, truly remarkable, with an album dropping every other year. That journey culminates in what is easily his best work of musical extremity yet: Servant Of Ahriman.

I have spent the better part of two weeks completely enveloped in this album. It has grown on me in a way I haven’t experienced since first hearing Djevel‘s 2021 masterpiece, Tanker Som Rir Natten, another record I consider absolute perfection. If you’re familiar with that album, you’ll know exactly what I’m trying to convey here. Like Tanker, Servant Of Ahriman is built around a massive, surging tsunami of sound that effortlessly balances the frigid, hypnotic, mid-tempo framework of second-wave black metal with its inherent malevolence. Where Djevel used icy acoustic breathers to break up the calamity, From The Vastland employs warm, haunting interludes built on traditional Persian instrumentation. It marks the very first time Sina has brought these Persian elements directly into the fold. Instead of cluttering the chaos, Sina places them strategically, often using them as both atmospheric intros and outros on tracks like ‘Empire Of Serpents,’ ‘Ahriman, Triumphant!’, and ‘Decadence,’ and the payoff is breathtaking.

One might think these two worlds would completely clash – the warm versus the cold. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. A deep commonality exists: both styles naturally gravitate toward feeling sinister, tragic, ancient, and otherworldly. The only real difference lies in the tools used. Where second-wave Norwegian black metal relies heavily on icy minor keys and dissonant tremolo picking, which Sina has absolutely perfected, traditional Persian classical music heavily utilizes modes (Dastgāh) that feature minor intervals, microtones, and mournful, melancholic shifts. The marriage of these two worlds is so beautifully cohesive that I find myself longing for it even in the Norwegian classics I’ve loved for decades.

The most interesting thing about Servant Of Ahriman is that even if you were to strip away its extra layers – remove the Persian textures and compelling historical narrative – you are still left with one of the best modern examples of second-wave riffing and arrangement. Sina doesn’t use tremolo picking just for the sake of tremolo. Nope. Every riff carries melodic tension that punctuates the glacial weight surging beneath it. In other words, each and every riff is incredibly infectious – in a headbanging, fist-pounding/horn-throwing kinda way – while still sounding evil as all fuk. The album’s final track, ‘Decadence’, best exemplifies this. The centrepiece riff here is structured much like the main riff in the classic Burzum song ‘Jesu Tod’. This riff is so infectious that Sina could loop it endlessly with the equally infectious drum gallop without ever wearing out its welcome… and the album is chock full of these moments.

THE VERDICT

Without singling any one band out, much of modern Norwegian black metal functions like a carefully curated museum exhibit, where maintaining the sanctity and heritage of that classic 90s sound takes priority over everything else. That isn’t a criticism; preserving that history matters. But every now and then, a band comes along that honours the foundation while pushing boundaries. We see it in legacy bands such as Enslaved, Borknagar, Satyricon, Taake, Kampfar, and 1349, as well as more contemporary bands such as Mørk, Djevel, Taake, Dold Vorde Ens Navn, Vemod, Mare, and Slagmaur. Yet From The Vastland stands out as perhaps the most exciting musical entity currently navigating that much-beloved style. With Servant Of Ahriman, Sina has single-handedly paved the way for what could very well be considered a new era for the sub-genre, an era that pays homage and respect to its forebears whilst injecting just enough uniqueness and personality to stand out like a majestic, snow-capped mountain in the middle of a scorched Persian desert.