Reviews list for Skaldr - Saṃsṛ (2025)

I am making a few black metal discoveries of late. Some of them known to me as artists already, others - like Skaldr – being completely new to me. Hailing from Virginia, at first glance it looks like the band is made up of a trio of former live musicians who worked with the band Asagraum around 2022. However, vocalist/bassist Carey Vaughn was in the legendary Sacramentum on bass duties as late as 2023. Harry and Brent who cover guitar duties, seem to have settled on Skaldr as being their main project now touring duties with Asagraum are done with. On Saṃsṛ, the band show their experience well, producing a fine slab of melodic, folk-tinged bm in the process.

Mixed and mastered by none other than Dan Swanö himself, this record has a certain pedigree about it. Whilst it does get a little cumbersome in arrangement in places (opening track ‘The Sum of All Loss’ feels a bit rushed in places), overall, there is more than enough satisfaction here for my North clan tendencies. Walking that fine line between melodic yet not entirely accessible black metal, this is a record that shows strong elements of control and restraint to me. Although I cannot find the full instrument listing for the record, there is more being deployed here than just guitars, bass, drums and ghastly vocals. I hear a bayan at least once and I also suspect there is a banjo in the mix here somewhere on occasion.

That aside, the core bm elements are great. Lush tremolos and progressive bass lines take their place alongside galloping and charging tempos, led by blastbeats galore. Even the acoustic interlude, Liminal is well-placed on the track listing to give a brief respite before the final two tracks on the album get introduced. Album closer, and by far the standout track here, ‘The Cinder, the Flame, the Sun’ is a beast of a closing track that shows how effective well-written melodic black metal can be at over the seven-and-a-half-minute mark, and how it can retain that excitement for the full duration of the song. Saṃsṛ is an exciting record overall though, well-paced and yet it manages this without sacrificing intensity.