Day 18 of the #mayvinylchallenge asks for an album with some incredible art or packaging. was lucky to get in early and snag the limited edition package for Tales of Othertime, the second release and first full length from Stormkeep, a kind of black metal supergroup featuring members from Blood Incantation and Wayfarer. The album’s artwork would be with the entry if that was the only thing that came with the music, but this edition also came with a book, a map, and a patch for the battle vest I have yet to complete.

Today’s been bit of a slog with migraines and allergies, so I’m going to keep this really brief. Musically the band holds true to the kind of early wave melodic black metal that’s rife with solos, riffs, and atmospheric keyboards. I listed it in my best albums of 2021 for Nine Circles and had this to say about it:

Even if the music wasn’t excellent, this would have made it for the cover alone. AOTY material, right there. On Halloween my brother and I re-watched The Gate for the first time in years, and we both loved how they nailed the intricacy of the metal album The Dark Book by Sacrifyx (actually Canadian thrash masters Sacrifice). Stormkeep’s latest feels like that: filled with mythology and magic, and practically overflowing with black metal wonder. When you get to the bent riff about halfway through “The Seer” you’ll know what I mean, and if you were lucky enough to get one of the numbered, limited editions of the vinyl complete with map, book, patch and die cut outer cover you’ll understand more of why I’m over the fog enshrouded moon for Tales of Othertime.

Good enough for a #mayvinylchallenge entry. At some point I’ll come back to this because it’s definitely one of the better black metal albums to come out in the past few years.