Beautiful. Simply beautiful. This is how I rate this debut by the Belgians ARCHAIC OATH, a Black Metal band that arrives on the global scene this 2026 with a true masterpiece of the genre. They debut with “Determined To Death And Beyond”, an album full of everything: rage, melancholy, atmosphere, darkness and a music that stays in the environment and in the senses. Although I didn’t like the spoken part at the beginning of the first track, ‘Above The Ice’, I must say that from then on, everything was a true enjoyment. Here I found many of those elements that I love so much about Metal: melody, good sound, rhythmic diversity, lots of atmosphere, darkness and a lot of feeling involved. It is an album that, song by song, transits through the deepest human emotions. And I, being the nostalgic person that I am, found a lot of that in this album. The guitars, the keyboards, the melodies, the voice, the clean voices, the pauses, the returns, everything in the same logic: that of an album full of sense and feeling. Naturally, there are very aggressive, fast, furious parts… How else could an album like this be? The band’s line of influences is evident. And not only because of the cover they do, which is brutal, ‘Ye Entrancemperium’ (EMPEROR cover), but because it really shows that they have consumed a lot of that Black Metal that marked an entire generation. ARCHAIC OATH is a duo with Arneriach (vocalist) and Lykormas (the mind behind the instruments) and, in my opinion, they managed to structure a jewel. It’s just that I really loved every song because I found chaos, pain, rage, anguish and a high musical level that perfectly fits my musical preferences. Because, finally, I think that’s it. We like one band more or less than another simply because it is closer to our preferences. And that is the case with ARCHAIC OATH and their debut album, which, by the way, comes to light under the AOP Records label on CD and 12″ vinyl. There is not much more to say: a great work that deserves our attention and one that positions ARCHAIC OATH, from my perspective, as one of the best debuts I have had the opportunity to listen to so far this year. More information here: www.facebook.com/archaicoath, www.facebook.com/aoprecs