Artist: Hulder
Album: Verbolgen
Genre: Black Metal / Medieval Black Metal
Release: 7 August 2026
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Tracks: 9
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸 5/5 Guitars
There are records that sound like they were made in expensive studios surrounded by blinking equipment and people discussing compression.
Then there’s Verbolgen.
This sounds like it was summoned beneath a full moon somewhere deep in a forest where your phone stopped getting signal about three miles ago.
There are torches burning.
Something is moving between the trees.
And whatever you do…
Don’t investigate the noise. 🌲😂
Hulder’s third full-length album is a gloriously immersive journey into black metal’s oldest and darkest instincts.
Tremolo-picked guitars?
Obviously.
Blast beats?
Naturally.
Shrieking vocals capable of terrifying livestock?
Absolutely.
But Verbolgen reaches considerably further.
Acoustic guitars, synths, flutes, field recordings and medieval textures creep through the darkness, transforming these nine tracks into something that feels less like a straightforward black-metal album and more like entering another world.
Cold.
Ancient.
Melancholic.
Violent.
Beautiful.
Right then.
Light the torches.
We’re going in. 🔥⚔️
💿
Track Listing
- Drie Raven (Intro)
- The Crowning
- Thy Binding Oath
- Verbolgen
- … And We Shall Sing
- In Blood And In Earth
- Den Nacht Zijn Lied
- View From Nemeton
- The Glow Of Dawn
⚔️
Track-by-Track Review
1. Drie Raven (Intro)
Something is coming.
That’s immediately obvious.
Drie Raven doesn’t need distorted guitars or blast beats to create tension.
Atmospheric sounds establish the landscape while percussion echoes ominously underneath.
It feels ceremonial.
Ancient.
Slightly threatening.
Basically, if someone wearing a cloak suddenly appeared holding a flaming torch, we’d be entirely unsurprised.
🎸🎸🎸🎸
2. The Crowning
🔥 THERE IT IS.
The tranquillity disappears and Hulder erupts.
The Crowning is vicious traditional black metal delivered with absolute conviction.
Tremolo guitars slice through the mix.
Drums hammer forward.
Hulder’s vocals sound positively demonic.
Yet underneath the violence sits something unexpectedly grand.
Flute and melodic textures give the track an almost regal quality.
A coronation ceremony from hell.
Lovely.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
3. Thy Binding Oath
Rather than simply attempting to go faster, Thy Binding Oath becomes heavier through patience.
There’s an almost processional rhythm running underneath the song.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Deeper into the woods we go.
The guitars create an enormous wall of atmosphere while the drums keep everything moving with deliberate menace.
Sometimes the slow march is considerably more frightening than the sprint.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
4. Verbolgen
The title track feels absolutely freezing.
You can practically hear wind cutting through trees.
Hulder balances raw black-metal aggression with haunting melody beautifully.
The riffs are vicious without becoming indistinguishable.
The atmosphere is enormous without overwhelming the songwriting.
And those vocals?
Someone needs an exorcist.
Preferably one who understands blast beats.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
5. … And We Shall Sing
There’s something strangely triumphant about this one.
Not happy.
Let’s not get carried away.
This is still Hulder.
Nobody is suddenly producing balloons and party hats.
But … And We Shall Sing carries a sense of defiance underneath the darkness.
Repetition becomes hypnotic.
Melodies gradually reveal themselves.
And before long, the whole thing has completely swallowed you.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
6. In Blood And In Earth
🩸🌲 Absolute monster.
At around seven minutes, In Blood And In Earth gives Hulder room to properly stretch out.
Acoustic guitars.
Flute.
Atmospheric passages.
Then…
RIFFS.
Huge ones.
The transition between ancient folk textures and crushing black metal feels completely natural.
That’s important.
The medieval elements aren’t novelty decorations.
They’re embedded into the song’s DNA.
By the time everything reaches full force, you’re completely inside this strange world Hulder has created.
One of the album’s finest moments.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
7. Den Nacht Zijn Lied
Right.
Enough wandering peacefully through the woods.
Time for violence.
Den Nacht Zijn Lied is absolutely ferocious.
The drums become increasingly aggressive while the guitars attack from every direction.
Then come flashes of lead guitar that almost stray into death-metal territory.
It’s furious.
Technical.
Melodic.
And gloriously nasty.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
8. View From Nemeton
One of Verbolgen’s biggest surprises.
The opening carries a heavy, almost death-march quality.
Then something happens.
Groove.
Yes.
Actual groove.
On a Hulder album.
And it works brilliantly.
Just as you’re settling into that rhythm, the guitars begin duelling and everything shifts again.
This is exactly the sort of songwriting evolution that keeps traditional black metal interesting.
You know the ingredients.
You don’t necessarily know where they’re going.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
9. The Glow Of Dawn
🌅 After all that darkness…
Light.
Sort of.
We’re not suddenly skipping through a meadow while Disney birds land on Hulder’s shoulders.
Calm down.
But The Glow Of Dawn carries genuine melancholy.
Synths glow underneath the guitars while the entire track feels strangely reflective.
After an album filled with darkness, ritual and violence, there’s something unexpectedly human here.
Vulnerability.
Loneliness.
Perhaps even hope.
The sun hasn’t fully risen.
But somewhere beyond those trees, you can see it.
A stunning ending.
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
🔥
The Breakdown
🎤
Vocals — 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Absolutely vicious.
Hulder’s rasp remains commanding throughout without becoming monotonous.
There’s genuine personality behind the aggression.
🎸
Guitars — 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Tremolo riffs dominate, naturally, but there’s impressive variety underneath.
Acoustic passages.
Melodic leads.
Grooves.
Atmospheric textures.
And some unexpectedly tasty guitar heroics.
🥁
Drums — 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Ferocious when required but intelligently restrained elsewhere.
The slower sections prove every bit as powerful as the blast beats.
🏰
Atmosphere — 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
Ridiculous.
Put headphones on and you’ll practically start checking behind you for medieval spirits.
✍️
Songwriting — 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
This is Verbolgen’s greatest strength.
Traditional black metal can easily become repetitive.
These nine tracks never do.
🏆
Standout Tracks
👑 The Crowning
🩸 In Blood And In Earth
🌙 Den Nacht Zijn Lied
🌲 View From Nemeton
🌅 The Glow Of Dawn
🏰
Medieval Darkness Done Properly
Here’s where Hulder gets things absolutely right.
Adding medieval instruments to metal isn’t automatically interesting.
Anyone can stick a flute over some tremolo picking and announce they’ve invented YE OLDE BLACK METAL.
That’s not what’s happening here.
The medieval elements within Verbolgen feel fundamental to the music.
They create atmosphere.
They provide contrast.
They connect the album’s black-metal aggression with something older and stranger.
And crucially, Hulder never overuses them.
When the record needs to become pure, vicious black metal?
It does.
When it needs space?
It takes it.
That restraint makes the unusual instrumentation considerably more effective.
🤘
The Riff Report Verdict
Verbolgen demonstrates exactly why traditional black metal still has enormous creative potential.
Hulder isn’t desperately trying to reinvent the genre.
She’s doing something smarter.
She’s exploring the atmosphere already hiding inside it.
The forests.
The folklore.
The darkness.
The melancholy.
The ancient imagery.
These things have always existed within black metal.
Verbolgen simply digs deeper.
And beneath all the aesthetic darkness sits something surprisingly emotional.
That’s what really separates the album from countless records attempting similar territory.
There’s fury.
Obviously.
But there’s also loneliness.
Reflection.
Defiance.
Even glimpses of hope.
That emotional range gives Verbolgen genuine depth.
Nine tracks feel like one journey.
You enter through Drie Raven.
You descend deeper through The Crowning, Thy Binding Oath and the title track.
You reach the album’s enormous heart with In Blood And In Earth.
Then eventually, after all that darkness…
The Glow Of Dawn appears.
Not daylight exactly.
But enough to find your way home.
Assuming whatever was following you through the woods hasn’t caught up.
Best walk faster, butt. 😂🌲
THE RIFF REPORT RATING
🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
5/5 GUITARS
Ancient. Vicious. Atmospheric. Beautifully bleak.
Hulder’s Verbolgen takes traditional black metal deep into the forest and returns carrying something genuinely haunting.
Nine tracks. No filler. Plenty of darkness.
Light the torches and turn it up. 🌲🔥⚔️🤘
:::
Michael is the founder, editor, and chief riff wrangler behind The Riff Report, an independent Welsh rock and metal publication built by fans, for fans. With a lifelong passion for loud guitars, unforgettable live shows, and the incredible community that surrounds rock and metal, he created The Riff Report to celebrate everything that makes the scene special—from legendary headline acts and grassroots venues to rising bands that deserve to be heard.
A familiar face at festivals across the UK, Michael spends much of the year covering events including Download Festival, Bloodstock Open Air, Steelhouse Festival, Firevolt, Plumpton Revival, and many more. Whether he’s battling the Welsh weather on a mountainside, surviving a weekend in a muddy campsite, or squeezed against the front barrier with thousands of fellow fans, he’s always searching for the next great story to share.
As editor of The Riff Report, Michael writes festival guides, breaking news, album reviews, gig reviews, interviews, opinion pieces, nostalgia features, and behind-the-scenes stories from across the rock and metal world. His writing combines honest opinions, humour, and a genuine love for live music, bringing readers closer to the bands, festivals, venues, and people that keep the scene alive.
Michael is particularly passionate about supporting independent artists, local venues, charities, and the wider UK rock and metal community. He believes every band deserves a chance to be discovered and every festival has a story worth telling. Through The Riff Report, he aims to shine a spotlight on both the biggest names in rock and the future stars waiting to break through.
When he’s not writing or interviewing artists, you’ll probably find him exploring festival campsites, photographing live shows, chatting with fellow fans over a pint, or planning the next road trip in search of more riffs, bigger crowds, and unforgettable moments.
Above all, Michael believes rock and metal are about more than music—they’re about community, friendship, and creating memories that last a lifetime. That’s exactly what The Riff Report exists to celebrate.
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Always chasing the next great riff. 🤘
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