Hulder’s ‘Verbolgen’ Strips Black Metal to Its Core

Marliese Beeuwsaert has spent eight years carving away at Hulder’s form. The Pacific Northwest black metal project’s new album Verbolgen is the sharpest result yet—a record that strips back the folk flourishes that once colored releases like Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry and leans hard into the core of the genre.

Where much black metal now pursues novelty through unexpected combinations—saxophones, cybergrind, clean vocals—Hulder moves in the opposite direction. The album works within codified black metal, weaving tremolo melodies and mid-paced marches with a restraint that feels deliberate. Beeuwsaert’s rasp is dry and commanding, particularly on “Thy Binding Oath,” where her phrasing coils like Rennie Resmini of Starkweather. Keyboards and woodwinds appear sparingly, placed with precision rather than decoration.

The word verbolgen translates to anger or offense in Dutch, but the album doesn’t rely on sheer aggression. Instead, it finds tension in repetition and pacing. Tracks lock into a tempo and ride it, with bassist Necreon and session drummers Vapula and Vrolok creating space through momentum. On “The Glow of Dawn” and the title track, that disciplined approach yields a brightness that feels earned.

What remains when a band works this way is a record that sounds human without trying to sound live, and severe without theatrics. The artwork—a sun thawing frozen trees—hints at that clarity. Hulder isn’t abandoning black metal’s past. It’s just choosing which parts to keep.