Last year, the cover of the debut album of Draugveil (“Cruel World Of Dreams And Fear”) went viral. Simply put, it was transformed into a memes since it is considered ridiculous by many enthusiasts who have remained stuck in a strongly fundamentalist imagination. In fact, here it is not a question of a marked contamination with other sounds, but of an aesthetic approach sui generisalong the lines of what was recently done by Këkht Aräkh (artist even ended up on Sacred Bones Records!) with his so-called romantic black metal. The latter is Ukrainian, just like the young Yevhen Konovalov (Draugveil is now stationed in Prague) and Kyrylo Kyrylenko, the name behind which the Selvnatt project is hidden.
The collaboration between the two – already outlined in a song on the aforementioned album – becomes a real album with “Blades & Roses”, a work that will be talked about starting with a new cover that is obviously impactful, for better or for worse. Someone will call them poser (adding that the horse, in some way, is also a blackster with a pitted face), but it is important to focus on the music because these two guys, in reality, are not to be despised at all.
“Shards” is a more than convincing business card (the riff draws a melody as solemn as it is dramatic), a sharp piece, yet capable of suggesting poignant and twilight sensations. This mood returns often, especially when the semi-acoustic nuances become an integral part of the album (the excellent “Frozen Throne”) or when the break melancholy definitively take possession of the various compositions (“Unspoken”), with references even to Lifelover.
If “Gjennom Liv Og Død” sounds like a sort of (unsuccessful) tribute to Darkthrone from the beginning of the century, it must be said that even the more relaxed interludes work up to a certain point (“Vestige” and “Wilted Bloom” don't leave their mark), unlike the final “Afterlife”, a nice blow depressive which (coincidentally) brings to mind those atmospheres so dear to the Këkht Aräkh of the single “Dröm Sång“. The production lo-fi closes the circle, because romance is fine, but it's always better to make it bloom like a rose on the dirtiest battlefield.
Beyond the inevitable detractors, “Blades & Roses” is therefore a discreet collaboration worthy of attention, the result of the intentions of two young men (Yevhen was born in 2002) who are partly still immature and naive, but undoubtedly capable of communicating something interesting within a scene that also needs these diversions.
02/18/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
