Satanic Warmaster – Exultation of Cruelty (2024)
Exultation Of Cruelty, seemingly coming out of nowhere (although I hardly keep up with the breaking news when it comes to Finnish black metal), takes the crown for black metal in 2024. It is one of the strongest Satanic Warmaster records ever made, which is pretty fucking exciting considering how long this project has been going for now.
Comparisons to Judas Iscariot are apt, but a tad reductive. It still sounds like Satanic Warmaster to me, but the return of a raw / more lo-fi production is heavily welcome IMO; this dense atmosphere of distortion and audible fog works so much better than the cleaner produced work from the same project.
Highly recommended from me, for what it’s worth.