It was some 10 years ago when I stumbled upon such a haunting black-metal gem on Bandcamp that I had a hard time believing it came from Finland. I mean, the Finnish black metal I had been exposed to typically sounded quite different from the meditative chaos of VESPERITH. It is the musical outlet for Sariina Tani‘s cosmic visions that blend delicate, ethereal soundscapes with the blistering intensity of black metal in a somewhat SYLVAINE-esque fashion. The release in question was her 2015 EP “Esoteros.” A few years later, her eponymous debut was released via Svart Records in 2019, and it remains one of the most seminal black metal albums to capture the aura of spiritual transcendence, in my opinion. Now, it looks like we might be receiving a new album, maybe even in the not-so-distant future, with a new single entitled “The Heart” having come out via Bandcamp on September 9th, 2025. As per the caption, new tracks to the album will be added once the ideas have taken their chosen forms. The album title is already chosen to be “Ctrl+Alt+Deify.” So, by the looks of it, the pilgrimage to the realm where the shadow meets the light continues…
This new song is a 10-minute epic that kicks off with a 3-minute intro of intense noise, and things do not get much lighter after that point, but there is a sort of volcanic pulse beneath the ocean of distorted noise from there. Then, around the 5-minute mark, the tapestry of noise begins to evolve a bit more. Yet, throughout its entire 10-minute length, the song is predominantly just textured noise. Apparently, SUNN O))) and SWANS have made quite an impression on Tani since that 2019 debut. I also sensed some musical kinship to BLUT AUS NORD, whose 2023 EP “Disharmonium II – Nahab” traversed sonic terrain not very far from this effort. Needless to say, this is not for the weak of heart. I’m not sure whether I would be willing to listen to a 60-minute full-length comprised of noise like this, but a 10-minute journey into the heart of noise is no problem. The profile text for VESPERITH on Svart Records’ website states that this music project is “a conduit for the chaotic harmony of the universe,” and, for this once, I can fully agree to the marketing lingo. This song captures the sound of a collapsing star. I still do hope that the upcoming album is a bit more nuanced affair, especially given that Tani can sing like an angel. I reckon it was a peculiar stroke of some cosmic synchronicity that I just finished reading The Mysticism of Sound and Music, a book by the Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan, in which he wrote, “The main difference between mysticism and magic lies in the role of effort versus effortlessness; magician makes an effort with a ritual or conjuration, whereas a mystic simply opens himself up to the experience and lets go.” Judging by the new song, VESPERITH is truly channeling the dark energy from some otherworldly realms. There are no music videos, but with this kind of music, it’s best to just put on your headphones and let go.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
