Country: Belgium
Genre: Black metal
Full length: Vampyric War in Blood
Format: CD, digital
Label: Immortal Frost Productions
Release date: December 19, 2025
When I first heard "Vampyric War in Blood," I had the impression of watching a horror exploitation film from the seventies. To me the album felt like the legend of a vampire cult forgotten by history but alive, concealed from humanity, turning humans in the shadows and performing rituals deep underground beneath ancient, forgotten, crumbling castles in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the inevitable day to reveal their existence. It piqued my interest in delving further into their hidden society, and discovering the nature and significance of their rituals.
As I mentioned in my analysis of "Castle Inside the Eclipse," Bloedmaan is a project helmed by Ronarg, who is also involved with Antzaat, Ars Veneficium, and Ronarg, and collaborated to some extent with Druon Antigon, Nachtmaer, and Doodswens. The Belgian musician has contributed artwork for Dystopia, A Thousand Sufferings, Gurthang, Sidious, Ondfødt, Psychonaut 4, and others. Being that he was born in 1992, when second wave black metal was gaining traction, it's should be little surprise that this project is ideal if you like Gorgoroth, Black Funeral, Darkness Ensrhoud, and Tsjuder.
In some ways "Vampyric War in Blood" feels similar to early Immortal (“Pure Holocaust,” “Blizzard Beasts”) as millennia of cold, snow, and ice seem to radiate from the album's guitars, atmosphere, and ambience. While Immortal gave us glimpses into the fabled land of Blashyrkh, Bloedmaan shows us the everlasting cold and frost as final place of repose of an eons-old vampire lord, perpetually sleeping but not quite dead, laid to rest when his time came to an end, but not for forever. When his time finally comes to rise again, it will be heralded by a birth cry heard far beyond the vicinity of his burial.
As if symbolizing the deity the vampire cult worshipped and served since the beginning of time, a deity older than time that will endure long after humanity has winked out forever, the opening piece creates a mood like a ceremony to celebrate a return to unspeakable vampiric practices, creating intensifying suspense and unease. This mood, with keyboards and choral vocals added for more environment, advances the growing anxiety and spawns refinement instead of focusing entirely on engulfing you.
As on Bloedmaan’s debut, the ambiance provided this album at Wolfthrone Studios is bursting with Ronarg's frost-laden lead and rhythm gutars. The surrounding darkness is made to feel cold, the cold you would feel in a region between the surface of the earth and a subterranean ruin where no sun has existed for as long as anybody can remember. Rumbling, echoing bass evokes something that has slumbered beneath for too long and has now awakened. Ronarg's voice heralds the dawn of a new era marked by its rebirth, reaching far and wide into the blackend sky above.
After "Vampyric War in Blood" flooded my imagination with such vivid imagery, I'm curious to learn more about Ronarg's extensive research into vampires and vanpirism, the sources he consulted, and what they mean to him. I'm drawn to this, and I imagine there's a lot more to what he uncovered that's covered in mystery next to what he revealed on in his album. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Ronarg: Vocals, guitar, bass
Lennart Janssen: Keyboards
Frederik Geuvens: Drums
Track list:
1. Intro
2. Vampyric War in Blood
3. Return to Castlevania
4. The Clock Tower
5. What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
6. Commander of Spectral Forces
7. Outro
8. Rise of the Blood Moon
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