Hulder - De Oproeping Van Middeleeuwse Duisternis (2019)^{Release ID: 26071}

Collecting tracks from the first two demo releases (Ascending the Raven Stone and Rehearsal 8/13/18) in an early compilation release, De Oproeping Van Middeleeuwse Duisternis captures the sublimely raw majesty of (mostly) one-woman bm project, Hulder.  Make no mistakes here folks, here be zero-value production mixed with some intense black metal that ravages the speakers with its primitive grimness.  The rehearsal tracks are obviously the more barbaric of the offerings and I have no problem with this as they seem to capture the true essence of what black metal is all about and remind me of some of the poorest quality recordings of gigs I have seen over the years that still exude a commanding and horrendously appealing performance from the artists concerned.

Landing stylistically somewhere between Horna and Darkthrone (and with a Celtic Frost cover thrown in there for good measure), this compilation is certain please any old-school black metal fan.  Mainwoman, Marz (assisted on some tracks by her husband on bass and C K on drums and keyboards) tends to do more or less everything herself on her releases.  Again, the rehearsal tracks seem to work better in this regard and feel more honed and alive.  However, the rest of the tracks work well enough albeit with them sounding a little artificial where they haven't necessarily been tracked brilliantly.  Closing track Implements of Hell hints at some of the depth of some of the later material that Hulder have released in recent years, with the songwriting here being a clear step up from the rest of the track listing.