Reviews: SAT389
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Roughly three years on from their debut album Keeper of Grief, the Russian band Gvorn will have a new EP named Lovecromancy released on May 13th by Satanath Records. It reflects a change in the band’s stylistic creativity as compared to that first full-length, a change heralded by the EP’s ghastly cover art.
While the debut of this group from Yekaterinburg included ingredients of funeral doom, they have mostly put those aside in favor of traditions of old school death/doom. But in case you assume they are merely plodding along in well-worn ruts, you will learn differently when you hear “Necromantic Dream“, the song we’re premiering today from the new EP.
Not only has Gvorn‘s music changed, so too have the lyrics. Lovecromancy is described as “a short conceptual work that talks about nightmares, necromancy, the undead and other horrors of dark fantasy, heavily inspired by the Elder Scrolls universe.”
In line with those themes and the name “Necromantic Dream“, today’s long song is a death conjurer that is both monstrous and hauntingly surreal, both very heavy and very frail, combining body-shaking grooves, beastly vocals, and passages of entrancing but grief-stricken beauty.
The glistening and gloomy notes of its introductory phase, coupled with swirling audio shimmers, begin leading listeners into that unreal liminal space between the world we know and what lies beyond it. But heavy stalking beats, a clanging bass, and cavernous growls point the way toward something more nightmarish.
Gentle, poignant arpeggios, clear in tone and coupled with head-moving rhythmic patterns, continue to trace fragile yet forlorn filigrees of beauty in the song, creating stark contrasts with the tormented, choking ugliness of the growls. Other contrasts arrive as the music slows and becomes more dismal and more vast, and harrowing screams join in with those gutturals, as if Gvorn are leading us in a descent through a barren and oppressive realm.
They also build tension through vivid hammering beats and wailing guitars that sound increasingly feverish and anguished — only to relieve the tension through a resumed revelation of shimmering and glittering beauty, but then to build it again through ragged chants and deep, rumbling undercurrents…
Satanath Records will release Lovecromancy in a jewel-box CD edition (300 copies) with an 8-page booklet. They recommend it for fans of Worm, Evoken, and Ahab, as well as early My Dying Bride and Cemetery Of Scream. The record was mixed and mastered by Anton Kurtekov, and that ghastly cover art is the work of Svetlana Kuprikova.
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2025/05/06/an-ncs-premiere-gvorn-necromantic-dream/
For a decade, the Yekaterinburg-based band Gvorn has been honing their craft of extreme music, from the slow atmospheres of funeral doom alike Bell Witch to the bubonic death metal gutturals of Cryptopsy. With a handful of lineup changes over the years, the group currently consists of members Valery Potekhin (vocals; Mizoteist), Roman Nadein (bass, vocals), Sergey Semenov (guitar), Vyacheslav Smirnov (guitar), and Nikita Chusov (drums).
While less in the trenches of funeral dirge as their previous release Keeper of Grief, the five-piece leans into the classic, dynamic death-doom sounds of My Dying Bride or Swallow the Sun on this new EP. Inspired by The Elder Scrolls video game series, Gvorn summons the dark, fantastical territories and necromantic creatures of Oblivion or Skyrim on Lovecromancy.
It’s difficult not to deny the immersive Ahab influence on opener “The Nightmare,” a somber, wandering exploration that leads to the mystic, twelve-minute highlight “Empires for Vampires.”
We’re honored to be offering an exclusive sneak peek of the EP prior to the release, but you can order a CD with 8-page booklet now, distributed via the Georgian label Satanath Records. Lovecromancy was mixed and mastered by Anton Kurtekov, and features artwork by tattoo artist Svetlana Kuprikova (Der Döbermann).