GRABUNHOLD (Ger) – Frostheim CD

It’s been five long years since GRABUNHOLD’s momentous debut album, Heldentod, which presented the “new old” sound of medieval black metal: Second Wave journeys through silent citadels, sequestered keeps, and dark dungeons, all done in a manner most Teutonic. While a split EP with Circle of Shadows arrived in 2023, the question still lingered: did the Germans still possess the steel to deliver a full-length as compelling – and compellingly modern, despite its ancient origins – as their debut?