Band info
Band: Illmara
Album: Blodlust
Released: October 30th, 2024.
Genre: black metal.
Location: Sweden.
Review
Hope you missed the Swedish scene a normal amount (as much as we do) because the fire’s up again and is coming as red as blood by the hands of Illmara, a four-piece project from Gothenburg delivering a harsh black metal flavour. Leaning less to a punk sound than a related project such as Völva (a band we encourage you to check out if you haven’t yet, there’s also new material there), where the band’s drummer Vittra also takes part in, conceptually doesn’t fall far; pissed off feminism channelling blasphemous and ferocious hymns to call for the fall of the patriarchy.
After their demo was released back in 2018, we couldn’t hear anything new until now with ‘Blodlust‘, their first album, comprised of 7 songs entirely written in Swedish. Illustrated with the ominous and impactful view of the bloodsoaked body of a woman with hands approaching its bottom side as immersed in a ritual, finished with a frame in Younger Futhark runes surrounding the scene, the listener could easily find out that both the title and the artwork hit the spot simply as straightforward as it seems: the album starts with “Marans lie“, putting the spotlight in the same figure the band’s name suggests referring, describing with fast-tempo, heavily melodic at times, second-wave reminding black metal, a praying session for her scythe (the ‘lie’ in the title) to reap the lives of men, as her otherwordly howling emerges from the depths of the forest, awakened by the revenge in the heart of her requesting worshipers (witches, häxor).
The speed and violence can only escalate during the frenetic journey Illmara brings from this very beginning, which doesn’t leave anything untold, each song a chapter of scenes challenging heteropatriarchy, its tangled roots justified in the warped foundations of the ‘divine’, and a vision of this vengeance as described in the third song, bathing in the blood of the father, feasting in the moment, ending the cycle.
Other links and platforms
Bandcamp: https://illmara.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/illmara.bm/