Let’s say you’re a member of the black metal band Setherial and you want to name a side project of yours. You’d need a cool, dark sounding name. A name that reflects the style of the music and can be pronounced with respect by fans of extreme music. Well, wouldn’t Blackwinds be a good idea?
In my opinion, it is. Blackwinds is a swedish black metal band that plays a music style influenced by for example Dimmu Borgir, Marduk, Dark Funeral and Setherial. I listened to their latest effort Flesh Inferno and I was pleased.

The music is just as ravenous as the band name and album title foretell. Shredding guitars accompanied by blasting drums and a pumping bass, these Swedes combine the well-known style of the second wave of black metal with a more modern, symphonic sound. The keyboards often make assumptions to a more commercial approach, yet Blackwinds knows how to avoid being tagged as a Dimmu Borgir rip-off with class. The vocals are top-notch; screeching gasps that bellow through whichever listener they encounter. Those vocals, however, do not radically change the course in which your standard satanic black metal band is heading. A great vocabulary in expensive words, yet in the end nothing astounding as a result.

Then again, it probably was not the band’s goal to be groundbreaking. The production is really good and the cover artwork fits the music wonderfully. If you like extreme metal of great quality and you’re up for some black metal that kills bugs in your apartment, give Blackwinds a go.