Thron - Vurias

Vurias is the fifth album from Thron, the German-Swiss band swapping the heavy metal grandeur of their previous opus for something ferocious enough to truly disturb, in searing vinyl territory that adds saxophone and Hammond organ to the usual arsenal of blackened death metal.

Dust, released in 2023, had already established the band as one of the most captivating live acts in the modern black metal scene, with stages at Hellfest and Summer Breeze alongside Amon Amarth and Carcass, and a full European tour with The Spirit. This new album pushes the sound towards stranger horizons. The classic metal influences haven't disappeared, but have faded into the background, replaced by a wild new intensity drawing on 1970s progressive rock in a way that almost no one in the genre dares, vintage synthesizers and wailing saxophone woven directly into the black metal attack rather than being separate from it.

The Hunter and the Prey takes this alchemy to its most aggressive climax, classic riffs colliding with the album's new atmospheric layers. Ungemach (Stilles Ende) is the true centerpiece of the album, Endstille's Zingultus lending a spectral and chilling voice while Norman Lonhard's drumming gives the whole thing real weight and cohesion. The work of Daniele Valeriani and the production of Christoph Brandes at Iguana Studios frame everything with menacingly accurate details.

Thron does not repeat himself here. This is a band that is actively expanding what black metal is allowed to sound like.