Malokarpatan - Vertumnus Caesar

A heavy metal-fueled ride through the Carpathian countryside

Invoking the feeling of a medieval adventure throughout, the latest release from Malokarpatan observes an epic journey through the lens of classic heavy and first-wave black metal.

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The album artwork is an oil painting created by Astrid Bergdahl.

It doesn’t take long to suss out the intended aesthetic of the album upon glancing the cover. Astrid Bergdahl’s expert use of the brush puts forward a tone of Gothic and Medieval art. The soft edges and flattened perspective characteristic of pre-Renaissance techniques give the album an almost artifact-like quality, as if it were something created long ago. What’s more, the skewed lighting pouring through the windows on each side throws the whole image into an unearthly quality. This uncanniness is furthered along by the sharply upturned climb the passageway takes towards the horizon, further collapsing the depth of the image and casting the chamber beyond into a confused perspective of appearing …