Black Metal. SIGNAL REX is proud to present GRYMMSTALT's striking debut album, Anthems of Mournful Despondency, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats. The CD version will be released on December 21st while the vinyl and tape versions will follow in March 2023.
GRYMMSTALT is a new cross-continental project between two of black metal's busiest men: Wampyric Strigoi (WAMPYRIC RITES, DUNGEON STEEL, AURAE LUNAE et. al.) and Lord Valtgryftåke (RÜNDGARD, Pyreficativm, Gryftigæn, 13th Temple, Mánþiel et. al.). While both also helm WINTERSTORM, GRYMMSTALT foregoes that band's more medieval ruminations toward the trance-inducing melancholy of Burzum circa Filosofem - or perhaps more concretely, grim disciples like early Forgotten Woods, I Shalt Become, and Wigrid. Their first recording under this banner, Athems of Mournful Despondency is accurately titled: five time-expanding/halting tracks across 45 haunting minutes, shimmering with a strangely full rawness that only heightens (or deepens) the despairing abyss you'll be inexorably drawn toward.
As Lord Valtgryftåke explains, "Empirically speaking, each of the manifestos on this album recreates step by step the States in which an entity...the being...is possible to experience. It is possible to use pain as a vehicle of initiation to a totally different parameter, far beyond from the veil of earthly misery, far beyond the simple fact of absorbing the pain and these stabbing sensations and channeling a superior construction of the intellect towards various internal parameters of the Temple. Thus, this piece of music would intrinsically correspond to a spiritual nigredo."