Review: They Came From Visions – The Twilight Robes

Style: Atmospheric Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal (mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Early Ulver, Uada, Later Agalloch, Spectral Wound
Country: Ukraine
Release date: 23 February 2024

I am famous for being egregiously late to consuming movies and TV shows. Just a few weeks ago, I finally decided to watch The Wicker Man (the 1970s Christopher Lee one, not the Nicholas Cage one, but that will come soon enough), which introduced me to the genre of folk horror. There is something so enticing and disturbing in its normality: there are few special effects, no beings borne from curves and angles not native to this plane, just people following the logical conclusion of a string of tragedies and misfortunes. There is fear in the knowledge that these were once regular people who have been driven to atrocities by their circumstances.

Black metal artists are no stranger to folk horror inspiration, whether it be Agalloch’s The White EP or Raphael Weinroth-Browne side project The Visit’s Through Darkness Into Light. Inspired by Dark Ages folk horror, They Came From Visions sit comfortably between atmospheric black metal and melodic black metal: they add touches of melodicism to an atmospheric base and package it into varied tracks that occasionally veer into dissonance. While The Twilight Robes is no vast deviation from the debut Cloak of Darkness, Dagger of Night, the production has been appreciably augmented and the songwriting has also seen improvement, showing that They Came From Visions are talented at creating memorable moments from music that is typically designed to be textural. Very rarely does a black metal riff qualify as an earworm, but the riffs on “Equinox Ablaze,” “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws,” and “Twilight Robes” border on infectiousness while refusing to compromise on ominous atmosphere.

Despite the all-around improvement to the sound, what truly gives The Twilight Robes status as a conceptually complete and immersive black metal album is the full embrace of folk horror in the lyrical content. Across its runtime, a series of vignettes paint a world as it is overcome by misery and darkness caused by figures known as The Twilight Robes. In the beginning moments, the desperation of this world’s inhabitants reveals itself and by the end, the entire world is enveloped in shadows and anguish, shown through characters who are not bad at their core but are strong-armed into capitulation by the grim and dire world they inhabit. For example, “Equinox Ablaze” tells the story of a village that burns citizens alive to try and appease their harvest gods, Wicker Man-style, later being consumed by shame and regret for their actions, and “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws” describes a person who encounters a werewolf and is enraptured with temptation to become one themselves, despite werewolves’ reputation as “an ancient horror unleashed upon the world”. Across these songs, you can feel the fear and desperation in these characters, making for a convincing horror experience.

There are moments where even the choice of timbre in the instruments complements the narrative: “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws” centers around a uniquely high-pitched riff that can only be described as “howling”, remarkably fitting for a song about turning into a werewolf; on “The Sign of Damnation,” the narrator becomes engulfed in anguish and madness, reflected in the instrumentation by the introduction of dissonance and bone-chilling screams halfway through the track; and the main character of “Petrified Immortality” gives themselves away to lethargy and stillness as their body is turned to stone during one of the coldest and gloomiest riffs on the album, as if the riff itself is calcifying. They Came From Visions have a crystal clear idea of the world they want to create and they do not miss a single opportunity to articulate their no-pun-intended “vision”, manifested in a nearly flawless marriage of lyricism and instrumentation.

I mention nearly flawless here because, unfortunately, there are elements of The Twilight Robes that detract from its awe-inspiring and terrifying beauty. Though the production has improved from the debut, the drums could benefit from being slightly higher in the mix, as there are a few instances where I have to really focus to hear the drums well. Moreover, “The Blissful Defeat” introduces a slight slump and loss in momentum: it gets the unfortunate privilege of following up the absolutely crushing assault of “Burning Eyes, Blackened Claws” and has the weakest connection thematically to the folk horror aesthetic. It is by no means a bad song, though, and the cohesive and varied song structures prevent even the weaker tracks on The Twilight Robes from slipping into monotony.

They Came From Visions have set an effigy ablaze on The Twilight Robes, demanding the attention of those who can bear to observe its twisted branches. Combining folk horror lyricism with chilling and thematically appropriate instrumentation, the series of vignettes presented on The Twilight Robes paint a picture of what there is to be afraid of – not what is in the darkest corners of space or deep in the forest, but what emerges from our most desperate selves.

Recommended tracks: Burning Eyes Blackened Claws, Equinox Ablaze, Twilight Robes
You may also like: Stormkeep, Valdrin, Ars Moriendi, Winterhorde
Final verdict: 8/10

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Label: Eisenwald – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

They Came From Visions is:
– Voice of Misery (vocals)
– Voice of the Deep (bass)
– Voice of Gloom (guitars, drums)