Band: Hulder
Album: Verbolgen
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Country: United States
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Released: August 7, 2026
Introduction
Since 2018, the Washington-based project Hulder has carved out one of the most distinctive corners of American black metal. Built by Belgian-born multi-instrumentalist Marliese as a solitary vessel for the folklore and old-world dread of her childhood, Hulders first full length 2021's “Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry” established a foundation, then sharpening its melodic edge on 2024's “Verses in Oath”. Along with a few EP's in between, the project shed its one woman origins for the stage, and one of its longtime session players, Necreon, has now been formally welcomed as co-conspirator.
Verbolgen
Track Listing:
- Drie Raven (Intro)
- The Crowning
- Thy Binding Oath
- Verbolgen
- ...and We Shall Aing
- In Blood and Earth
- Den nacht zijn lied
- View from Nemeton
- The Glow of Dawn
“Verbolgen”, Dutch for “enraged”, is the product of that partnership: Hulder's third full-length, and its most collaborative yet.
Released August 7th through 20 Buck Spin and Season of Mist, “Verbolgen 's” nine tracks open with “Drie Raven,” a hurdy-gurdy overture courtesy of guest Keld, of Majesties and Obsequiae, that plays like a summons before the storm breaks. “The Crowning” and “Thy Binding Oath” answer with the record's strongest opening salvo, welding tremolo fury to unmistakably medieval melody. The title track and “View From Nemeton” hit hardest, all double-kick and serrated riffing with little patience for subtlety, while “In Blood and In Earth” and “Den Nacht Zijn Lied” stretch past seven minutes apiece without losing their bite, twisting between violence and something closer to reverence. Ianuaria's flute haunts the record's quieter corners, and drums split between Vapula and Vrolok give each half its own distinct pulse. There's nothing contemporary in the record's subject, just ravens, oaths, and forest ritual, the same old countryside myth-cycles Hulder has mined since the start. Which gives the fury here a rooted, almost liturgical quality rather than pure aggression. The result leans closer to the frost bound, Immortal-and-Satyricon-indebted spirit of black metal's second wave than to the naturalistic sprawl of Hulder's Pacific Northwest peers, a record more interested in deepening its own mythology than reinventing it.
Conclusion
“Verbolgen” doesn't reach for reinvention, and it doesn't need to; this is a band tightening its grip rather than loosening it. The back half asks more patience than the opening tracks promise, and momentum occasionally slackens where the record could bite harder. But the atmosphere never cracks, and the songwriting rarely falters. For anyone who found “Verses in Oath” essential, “Verbolgen” is a worthy, wrathful continuation. Less a new chapter than a deeper carving into the same ancient wood. ⚔️
BMZ Rating: 8.5/10
Previous reviews
Roberto
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