Out 6 February, 2026
Via Club Inferno Ent.
Words by: Courtney Stark
Emerging from the icy depths of the heart of the Swedish black metal coven, Evoked Eclipse delivers a sacred offering – a debut that feels reverent as it is restless. The Cries Of Evil is anchored in Scandinavian Black and Death Metal, the album echoes Dissection’s icy precision, Naglfar’s relentless drive but layering melodic sophistication of Swedish prog-metal overlords Dark Tranquility and Opeth with melancholic atmospheres of early Katatonia (think Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones vintage). It feels like a frostbitten landscape under the Northern Lights but the icy wind whispering secrets of discovery that are both ritualistic and reckoning.
The album opens with Enchantment, a slow-burn invocation that sets a cold, spectral tone, where tremolo-picked riffs drift like mist over an unforgiving landscape. It sets the tone for the quintessential transcendental experience of atmospheric black metal – think Ruadh, Can Bardd and Ghost Bath (all of which were released under Northern Silence Records). The Cries Of Evil hits next with urgent aggression, pairing blistering blast beats with eerie, melodic overlays that hint at the band’s complex emotional palette.
Track three is Land Of The White Spirit Lady which leads into Mournishments which offers a haunting melancholic moment of reflection and shadow that contrast the album’s more punishing passages. In The Watch Of Spirits and Drops Of Blood, the band channels their inner death metal, with riffs that cut like steel and rhythms that feel almost ritualistic in their precision. Illusions Of The Life offers a slower, doom-laden interlude, allowing the gothic and melancholic influences to bloom fully, before Ascension closes the album with a sense of cathartic release, weaving all of the threads — black, death, melodic, and doom — into a sweeping finale.
Mastered by Jens Bogren at the legendary Fascination Street Studios, the sound is polished yet punishing, every note and tremolo rendered with crystalline clarity. Gogo Melone’s cover art mirrors the music’s dark, enigmatic vision, framing the album as both a sonic and visual journey. The Cries Of Evil isn’t just a debut; it’s a fully realized exploration of extreme and atmospheric music, where atmosphere and aggression collide in stark, memorable beauty.
