apanthropy

Kalmen
Sombre Vaults
Ván Records
Released: 5/30/2025

Rating: 83/100

“Fans of post-black metal, or black metal with a modern touch will have something to walk away with here. Fans of psychedelia-laced doom should also take note.”

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1 – Earthbound
2 – Hen Kai Pan
3 – Underworld
4 – Moon
5 – In Bloom
6 – Shu Ha Ri
7 – Uroboros
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Kalmen are a four-piece German black metal band that radiates shades of psychedelic doom, progressive metal, and post-black metal. Established in 2009, Sombre Vaults is their newest full-length, following 2018’s Funeral Seas and 2015’s Course Hex, and was released through Ván Records. Featuring seven tracks at slightly under 40 minutes of run time, fans of dissonant, expansive, and atmospheric black metal should take note.

Opening with ‘Earthbound,’ the band enters on stacked layers of guitar work, both melodic and dissonant in structure. These droning riffs are something the listener will get acquainted with quickly, as this technique is employed substantially throughout the album. About a minute into the track, the guitars merge into a central riff, a single-note tremolo line and the vocals emerge, a choking rasp-like voice similar to that of Mayhem’s Attila Csihar. The sonic centralization gives way to another droning ambient passage of guitars before refocusing once again to terminate the song.

‘Moon’ is another great example of atmospheric, psychedelic, droning dissonance. With a constantly wailing guitar in one channel and a dirge-like cyclical riff in the other, the vocals whip up and forward like a spell invocation. This split channel approach to riff crafting is present throughout the album, crafting an immersive atmosphere through combinations of dissonance and melody. The song tightens up towards the four-minute mark with a noticeable adjustment to the intensity and tempo but ultimately expands once again into an atmospheric black metal-style execution.

‘In Bloom,’ is one of the strongest tracks on the album, with brilliant early riff work that combines two completely separate riffs into one moving mechanism of sound. With ebbing waves of refrain and concentrated fury, the song works itself back and forth using a relatively similar formula that ‘Moon’ and ‘Earthbound’ employed.

‘Shu Ha Ri,’ is a collective culmination of the essence of Sombre Vaults, varying between atmospheric black metal, funeral doom, and modern black metal, complete with droning, progressive riff work and focused, pounding percussion.

Production on Sombre Vaults is fully modern, with crisp, frontal, and clear guitars that dominate the mix. The drums feature a relatively quiet snare tone with a nice warm low-end tonality on the bass drums. Vocals, mired in desperation and occasionally accented with ugly delay and reverb, stand in the center of the mix with a powerful presence that doesn’t overly saturate the end sound.

Fans of post-black metal, or black metal with a modern touch will have something to walk away with here. Fans of psychedelia-laced doom should also take note.

Label: Ván Records
Band: Kalmen

AJK

This review was originally written for Voices From the Darkside.