Rating: 9/10
Release: 31 May 2024
Label: Hammerheart Records

The Canadian one-man band SIG:AR:TYR is coming back with a new 9-tracks album called “Citadel of Stars” that will be released on the 31st of May. This album is coming after 8 years since the last album called “Northern” and it can be considered as a “landmark album. It is an experience you have never heard before, a journey to the stars!” as Daemonskald says in the Bandcamp’s description of the upcoming album.

“Citadel of stars” has nine tracks that are, musically and technically speaking, very good and solid. Some of them are a good mix of black and pagan metal, but, surprise, there is some space for some less aggressive instrumental songs: the first one it’s the title track “Citadel of stars”, that, in my opinion, truly condense in itself the essence of the journey to the stars, the other one is “Who Will Guide Me Now”, that can be defined as “ethereal”. Number one track, called “Awaiting the Last Dawn” is the second longest track of the album with its 10:22 minutes, and it represent the good prelude to this journey-like album. “Where the Sun Never Sets”, the closing and longest track with its 10:41 mins, is a good blend of blackened, epic and pagan metal with a Nordic atmosphere and has a very suggestive acoustic intermezzo that can make your skin crawl, especially when you hear the lyrics restart with “I curse you / I curse you all”.

This new album is a great comeback for an artist as Daemonskald, that can continue to demonstrate that he is capable of doing great albums that combines epic, black and folk-pagan metal in a great way. this is a great album that demonstrates Daemonskal’s great ability to write music and lyrics, thus making up for the long wait for a new album.

Tracklist

1. Awaiting the Last Dawn
2. Beyond the Stars Unknown
3. The Blood That Came Before You
4. Citadel of Stars
5. Ascending the Stellar Throne
6. I Sail on, Eternal
7. Who Will Guide Me Now
8. From the Land of the North
9. Where the Sun Never Sets