Jure Grando — Archaic Moon Mysticism

After two demos, one in 2020 and one in 2021, Archaic Moon Mysticism is the official debut album from this Indonesian ultra-raw black metal project. It’s an eight-track vinyl LP, which largely focuses on extremely cold and glamouring BM, with a decidedly battering and desolate attack.

The album appears on Lithuania’s Inferna Profundus Records- which releases the more wonky, crude, and terminally-freezing side of the BM underground. The album comes in two vinyl versions- black and white marble vinyl, and plain black – as of writing both of these are still available from the label here.

The album is bookended by intro and outro tracks- and these each run around the minute mark, and are all about wonkily wavering church organ music. The first full-length track is “With-in the night's Veil”- it switches between two relatively basic billowing ‘n’ baying tremolo riffs- which are topped crude ‘n’ cold shriek vocals.  And while the riff’s may be simplistic, the feel of coldly battering grim is unforgiving and unrelenting- like marching face & chest naked into a middle midnight whipping snow storm.

Moving on we have blunt battering drums that meet buzzingly black maelstrom bass & guitar glamouring of “Ethereal Flame”- which towards it latter half switches to bounding blunt riff chugg- which is freezingly seared by baying shrieks. We have the speeding almost grimly bucking ‘n’ baying punk-like BM lopsided rush of “Solitary Hymn to the Unholy II”- which features occasional moments of more mid-paced pummeling. 

With Archaic Moon Mysticism Jure Grando has created a truly unforgiving and coldly searing ride in underground BM form. Yes, at times the tracks are somewhat interchangeable, and maybe a few more shifts in pace might have helped vairy things somewhat. But the project certainly does craven it’s own wonky barren take on the BM form, which will certainly appeal to those looking for total unforgiven and blood-freezing blacked metal.