René Thuys is a well-known Flemish musician, acting under the moniker of Ronarg. he’s involved with Ars Veneficium and Antzaat, two of the most notorious Scandinavian-styled acts from the Field of Flanders. Recently, he also joined Cirith Gorgor and Ronarg collaborates with Nachtmaer too. What a curriculum vitae. Lesser known, unfortunately, is his solo-outfit Bloedmaan (Dutch for ‘blood moon’), which he started almost four years ago. 2023 saw the unlight for his first offering, called Castle Inside The Eclipse (link for the review: see below). Almost punctually two years after that release, Bloedmaan return with its sophomore album, smoothly called Vampyric War. Like the debut, this one gets released via Immortal Frost Productions. That’s not a coincidence, for the owner of this victorious label, Mister Surtur, is frontman of aforementioned Ars Veneficium, and Antzaat, that other main project Ronarg is involved with, is part of the IFP family too. And just to complete all related information, well, Ronarg took care of the visual art for several releases on this label. …another proof that our planet is round…
So, what about Vampyric War… It was written and composed by Ronarg himself (sometimes called Rönarg, by the way), once more with assistance of Frederik Geuvens on drums and Druon Antigon’s Lennart Janssen, who provided the keyboard passages. Mix and mastering were done, FYI, at the almost legendary Wolfthrone Studios, another close relative to the label.
For forty-two minutes, Vampyric War accompanies us on a journey through fury and fairness at the same time. The album opens with an untitled intro (actually it is called Intro, to be honest), which is a quiet mainly acoustic instrumental piece with an ominous attitude, like the brief message for something horrific yet to come. Well, it does work that way indeed. As from Vampyric War In Blood, we can experience (and enjoy) quite a traditional yet firm, convincing effort of Nordic-styled Blackened superiority. The core is themed around highly harmonious leads, offering a mystic atmosphere, with magnificent tremolo riffs, sharp-edged dueling guitar play and haunting melodies. It gets firmly supported by a very varying percussion setting: martial patterns, blasting eruptions, thunderous double bass, fine-tuned cymbal-fury and militant textures. The other stings, rhythm six-string and down-tuned four-string, act like a basement of indestructible force, creating a fundament on which the more melodious segment can build, can grow, can expand, and explore. The sweet voice, then again, is of heavenly proportion… not! It’s an acid-spitting throat, vile and troubled, like rusty barb-wired vocal cords drenched in corroding venom. It strengthens the impertinent insolence during the harsher parts, yet it works scrupulously refined as well during calmer, rather secretive parts (cf. a droning piece like The Clock Tower).
The main tempo ranges from up-tempo to speed-up, with some semi-lightning blasts and a few doomed decelerations. Together with the raw yet well-balanced sound quality, it does fortify the audacious similitude to the Finnish and Swedish scene, as well as the Norwegian and, of course, the Belgian scene (for we do house many like-minded acts, as you know). Antzaat, Azaghal, Naglfar, Sargeist or even Dark Funeral or Gorgoroth it’s just a direction, a glimpse of Bloedmaan’s aural essence…
As usual, the album comes in an edition of five hundred compact discs, being a digipack that includes a sixteen-page booklet and a small poster, and there are two very limited vinyl printings too (one had been sold out in the meantime, I noticed), with an insert (that includes the lyrics) and an A2-sized poster. The stunning cover artwork (and all other inner paintwork) is courtesy of Mister Ronarg himself (I adore the colors used) with layout duties assisted by another label’s alumnus, WrathDesign (aka Marko J.).
https://immortalfrostproductions1.bandcamp.com/album/vampyric-war-in-blood
https://www.shop.immortalfrostproductions.com/product/bloedmaan-vampyric-war-in-blood-digipack/
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/bloedmaan