Behold this grandiose, atmospheric and haunting album of Black, Death and Doom Metal masterfully crafted by an amazing band from Dallas, Texas.

The sky darkens, the wildfires roar, and Fires in the Fall, the new album by American Black/Death/Doom Metal entity Krigsgrav emerges from the smoke. Formed in 2004 in Dallas, Texas, Krigsgrav (which by the way means “war grave” in Swedish) approach two decades as a project co-created by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist David Sikora, appealing to the autumnal heart beating within fans of Agalloch, Mother Of Graves, and My Dying Bride alike. Mixed and mastered by Owe Inborr at Wolfthrone Studios, and displaying a classy artwork by Cameron Hinojosa, Fires in the Fall offers the listener over 52 minutes of darkness and doom (or as the band likes to call it, Atmospheric Blackened Doom) carefully brought into being by the aforementioned David Sikora on drums, clean vocals and bass alongside Justin Coleman on vocals, guitars and synths, and Cody Danielson also on the guitars, resulting in the perfect follow-up to their 2021 album The Sundering.

Like a creature arising from the underworld the band comes crushing our senses in The opening tune An Everflowing Vessel, dark and sinister from the very first second, showcasing poetic yet acid lyrics (“Man’s foolish pride and perdition / Seems our hereditary mission / with blindness and ignorance / only a toxic future awaits”) while the guitars by Justin and Cody will pierce your mind mercilessly; and more of their first-class Doom Metal-infused riffs and bass lines permeate the air in The Black Oak, again showcasing a deep, demonic vocal performance by Justin while David keeps hammering his drums in the name of darkness. There’s not a single space left empty by those three skillful musicians in The World We Leave Behind, where Justin and Cody are on fire with their riffs and solos generating a menacing atmosphere tailored for admirers of the genre, exploding into the visceral and heavy-as-hell In Seas of Perdition, a brutal composition by Krigsgrav overflowing rage and madness where David sounds fantastic with both his blast beast and rumbling bass.

Then featuring guest vocals by Chris “Blutjäger” Sweigart (who was the band’s vocalist from 2004 until 2010, and also former vocalist of Obsidian Throne), it’s time for the Stygian hymn Shadowlands, with the band blasting obscure Doom Metal for the masses while their bass lines couldn’t have sounded heavier and more metallic. In Journeyman the lyrics reek of desolation (“Through times fertile, but wrought with storms / Traversing paths to an unknown end / A beacon lit and a brother’s code / May we never again kneel in suppression”) while the music is a grandiose and imposing hybrid of Black, Death and Doom Metal dictated by David’s galloping drums, followed by Alone With the Setting Sun, the last song of the regular version of the album, offering us all melancholic passages and a pensive ambience while also being full of breaks and variations, alternating between absolute darkness and ethereal moments, and with David once again stealing the show with his infernal drums. And if you go for the CD version of the album you’ll be treated to When I’m Gone, Let the Wolves Come, definitely worth the investment in the physical copy, a top-notch extension of the album presenting all elements that make it so compelling.

The talented guys from Krigsgrav are waiting for you on Facebook and on Instagram with news, tour dates and other nice-to-know details about the band, and don’t forget to also stream their creations on Spotify and to purchase a copy of Fires in the Fall from their own BandCamp page or by clicking HERE. “We wrote Fires in the Fall almost immediately after we completed writing The Sundering, so it almost feels like a double album, but they are very different,” shared Justin Coleman about their new opus. “We intentionally approached writing Fires in the Fall with the idea that it would be more atmospheric, and we would let the music breathe a bit more. That’s why the songs have more of a tempo change than those on The Sundering. With Fires, we wanted everything to be grandiose and bigger, but really emphasize giving each song a haunting feel.” Well, we must all agree they more than succeeded in making the music found in their new album even more atmospheric and epic than before, setting fire to the current underground scene and paving an even more interesting path ahead of them.

Best moments of the album: The Black Oak, In Seas of Perdition and Journeyman.

Worst moments of the album: None.

Released in 2023 Wise Blood Records

Track listing
1. An Everflowing Vessel 6:27
2. The Black Oak 6:21
3. The World We Leave Behind 6:12
4. In Seas of Perdition 4:27
5. Shadowlands 7:49
6. Journeyman 7:31
7. Alone With the Setting Sun 7:27

CD bonus track
8. When I’m Gone, Let the Wolves Come 6:39

Band members
Justin Coleman – vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, synths
David Sikora – drums, clean vocals, bass
Cody Daniels – lead and rhythm guitars, bass on “Alone With the Setting Sun”

Guest musician
Chris “Blutjäger” Sweigart – vocals on “Shadow Lands”