Vampiric Militant Legions is a new label from Transylvanian soil, focusing on Black Metal in the first place. The first release was 2025’s Quintaescensia Nocturna by Chilean horde Umbrío (unfortunately I haven’t had the time to write a review about this recording; maybe I still will in the future), and with Vampiric Oath’s Doctrines Of Withering Nature, this promising label comes up with a second sonic monster.
Vampiric Oath is a very young band, by the way, which was recently formed in Romania by Damian ‘Voievodul Morții’ Batista, whom you might know as well from, for example, Akral Necrosis, Funeral Baptism or Wolves’ Winter. In Spring 2025 there was a first EP, initially independently released and recently re-released on cassette format via Vampiric Militant Legions, with the sugar-sweet title Festum Sanguinis Gentis Dominantis. The album Doctrines Of Withering Nature is the first full album. For this recording, Damian joined forces with Finnish drummer Filip Gäddnäs (think: Whispered, Thyrargo, NecroBeast etc.). And it is not a coincidence that this record gets released via Vampiric Militant Legions since Damian runs this new label. The world isn’t flat after all…
The album ‘exposes human hatred as instinct, a doctrine of decay driven by mankind’s will toward self-destruction’ (taken from the bio). Doctrines Of Withering Nature gets released on compact-disc format, strictly limited to 100 copies, in a four-panel digipack, including a four-page booklet with the lyrics, as well as an authentic hand-numbered card. The artwork, done by Irina Chirita (Arpherosart), offers a very ‘typifying’ cover, which sort of suggests the sonic direction of this album.
So, what can you expect. Well, for thirty-four minutes, Vampiric Oath accompanies us through the mighty halls of Old (cf. the cover picture). Hammering rhythms and melodious riffs refer to the glorious Epic / Nordic scene, while thrashing details, icy voices, thunderous drums and rumbling bass lines fortify the unstoppable power that defines this stuff. This in short…
There is a remarkable number of structural and speed-related changes; the latter (i.e. the tempo) being up-tempo to lightning fast for the better time, yet coming with both some doomier passages, as well as intolerant and combative blast-eruptions. As said the whole is quite melodic in performance, with heathen harmonies and hypnotic lead riffage, yet remarkable too is the huge technically skilled execution. This goes for the whole string section (four and six), as well as for the important drums and percussions. A few acoustic intermezzos or semi-symphonic introduction, some melodious or spoken voices and even the use of field-recorded samples (like crickets?), it’s all part of the strategy. And it works, it works very well.
As sort of mentioned, you can’t expect something that rearranges the whole scene. Doctrines Of Withering Nature seeks, and finds, its main influence in a chaste approach of universal Black Metal for sure. But this adventure has so much to offer; so many angles, hooks, breaks and revelations do pass by, the whole of the time. Even after almost two hands full of listens, I still do discover new elements, I still get surprised by the finest secrets, I still get overwhelmed by that specific eccentric implementation of traditional yet, at the very same time, not that predictable Epic Black Fury War Metal!
https://vampiricmilitantlegions.bandcamp.com/album/doctrines-of-withering-nature
https://vampiricoath.bandcamp.com/album/doctrines-of-withering-nature