ORDER OF NOSFERAT - Arrival of the Plague Bearer, MC

It was but February of this year when ORDER OF NOSFERAT emerged from the rat-infested catacombs with their debut album, Necuratul, via PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Although a brand-new entity by name, the individual behind ORDER OF NOSFERAT is a well-known German multi-talent, here going by the nom de plume Count Revenant. While he handles strings, voice, and keys, Count Revenant is joined by Anzillu on percussion. And while this name may be brand-new, the sound across Necuratul is most definitely OLD...in every sense of the word. Undead vampiric black metal had truly arisen!

Wracked by fever and indeed plague, ORDER OF NOSFERAT waste no time in infecting the faithful/faithless with a brand-new full-length, Arrival of the Plague Bearer. Almost too perfectly titled, Arrival of the Plague Bearer is an aristocratic intensification of the not-inconsiderable Necuratul debut. Where that album was fuck-off raw, ORDER OF NOSFERAT's second album retains a rawness more regal, those melancholic melodies given ghoulish elucidation through more pronounced usage of dungeoned synth. In that regard, Arrival of the Plague Bearer again bears favorable comparison to vampiric pioneers like America's Black Funeral as well as France's Vlad Tepes, Mütiilation, Funeral, Blessed in Sin, or any number of bands orbiting the Black Legions or Concilium collectives. But, with the more maudlin textures unfurled so effortlessly here, ORDER OF NOSFERAT are now arriving at their own, plausibly idiosyncratic version of VAMPIRIC BLACK METAL.

And just like that celebrated debut, ORDER OF NOSFERAT again feels familiar and nostalgic, and indeed is that the point; black metal doesn't "need" to be anything else but what it already is...or already was, more accurately. And the same can be said for the "vampiric" appellation, before it was ruined by circus clowns and freaks on a leash as the once-glorious '90s came to a close. The dread boat has docked, and it bears the name Arrival of the Plague Bearer! [quote Label]