Band:	Paenil Era
Album:	Deviere
Style:	Black metal, Atmospheric black metal, Post black metal
Release date:	March 2023

01. The Tower
02. The Hearth
03. The Wall
04. The Tides

What’s this, a review of a Romanian metal album that was not recommended by Radu? Okay, Metal Storm may not be entirely reliant on our resident Romanian to discover metal from the country, but Paenil Era is seemingly underground enough that they may not even have appeared on his radar before now, let alone anyone else's; Deviere is here to try and change that.

Deviere is Paenil Era’s debut record, although in some ways it isn’t; Paenil Era is the successor of Signatura Rerum, who ran for a decade as a full line-up before frontman Erwin Weber (aka Vaarcloc) seemingly renamed the band to Paenil Era and turned it into a solo project. To be honest, I’ve only given the two Signatura Rerum albums the briefest of skims, but what I heard was somewhat frenetic black metal with slightly dubious keyboards. In becoming a solo project, Paenil Era has manifested a notable maturation in the songwriting compared to its predecessor.

The core of this new era for the project is still to some degree a black metal one; however, there is a far greater emphasis on melody and atmosphere. At different times, Deviere is a meloblack record, an atmo-black record, or a post-black record, and does a decent effort at simultaneously showing the distinction between these niches while also remaining tonally consistent throughout. Weber opts for the same approach that Dirge (IND) did on their self-titled record I reviewed yesterday, namely having 4 songs around the 10-minute mark, achieving a nice balance of lengthy, adventurous songs contained within a compact and accessible album as a whole.

The opening song on Deviere is geared towards the most melodic and least blackened end of the black metal spectrum; a shimmering, tranquil introduction eventually makes way for metal, but while the initial melodies are carried by delicate tremolos, it’s longer still until there’s a greater resemblance to black metal in the form of tremolo riffs, shrieks and blasts. “The Tower” is dominated by sad melodies and melancholic serenity, but it’s a pretty enthralling approach; at the other end of the album, “The Tides” renders atmospheric black metal in a similar fashion, but goes slightly less for the emotional jugular in favour of a more faded, haunted atmospheric quality.

In between, Paenil Era opt for less sorrowful writing. The tremolo-heavy melodic riffing on the marginally more aggressive “The Hearth” reminds me a bit of the tone of “Ever So Bold” from Abigail Williams’ excellent Walk Beyond The Dark, the melodies carrying a vitalizing uplifting energy that is routinely contrasted by slightly darker passages. The perhaps odd one of the track list is “The Wall”; from the slower, weightier central riff through to the delicate post-rock mid-section, this song would feel right at home on a post-black metal album. It’s not that the other songs necessarily wouldn’t, but there is something of a shift in style on this track in comparison to its neighbours on the record.

The four songs have their own distinct identities, and they also execute their plans well, each song capturing the intended vibe nicely. It’s not a groundbreaking album, nor an exceptional one, and there are DIY hints that come through particularly on “The Wall” in terms of sound, but in a year that’s featured a lot of good melodic black(ened) records that have made little impact on me, Deviere has managed to capture my attention more effectively than most.