It is still early in 2026. And, as always, the records we somehow missed late in 2025 are bubbling to the surface. I daresay, though, that the end of last year was very chaotic over at the RMR offices. So the next installment of Blasts from the Past may well be richly endowed with material not seen here to date.
The long and arduous pagan history of the lands in present-day Italy forever fascinated the RMR crew. It is an old land, full of often famous epochs. A rich blend of past cultures that are still remembered to this day. Dawn of a Dark Age has been treading these lost pathways for a while through the clarinet-wielding master songwriter Vittorio Sabelli.1 DoaDA‘s 2023 piece Transumanza offered a gnarly account of an age-old tradition of herding livestock up and down the windy mountain ranges of central Italy. A gritty piece of Avantgarde and folky Post Metal that knew how to fascinate this crew. A perfect example of storytelling in musica.
For this new album, the band moved the story way back in time. To tell the tale, when the region started to become the realm of the Samnites.2 The powerful foe of the early Romans, long before the nailed god raised its grumpy head. The record speaks about the Ver Sacrum3, in short, a ritual of consecration of newborns, livestock, or other entities. Gone are the scratchy, arid, and over-the-top scathingly aggressive airs of former records. And in comes a mellower offer, more pagan-oriented delivery, rooted in almost shaman-esque ritualistic music and old pagan folk. Put differently, at times, the piece sounds as if Heilung moved to Italy and grew themselves some Black Metal airs. When they’re not busy using pathways that other contemporary Folk Rock bands have already taken, that is.
But fear naught, this ain’t a case for the lamestream all of a sudden. You’ll still find the harshest of Black Metal that appears when the mood demands it. And this whole gaggle of soundbites is aptly led about the soundscape by the tasteful use of the clarinet and accordion. Yep, you heard that right. The accordion has been used before in Avantgarde and Folk Metal. But the licorice stick is an instrument usually prone to falling prey to jazz orgies. However, it works astonishingly well to bridge the formerly rough-hewn breakdowns from one style to the other.
Then, the RMR crew couldn’t help but notice the arrival of the new vocalist Ignazio Cuga.4 Gone is the grouchy vocal grind of former records. In come Ignatz‘s hoarse, raspy croak, the shaman-esque hums, growls, shouted clears, and perfectly executed monologues. In a way, his style really carried the flag around Ver Sacrum. And that creates enough drama in line with the vociferous storytelling on full display. The vox fully aligns with the ebb and flow of soft, folky passages, tasty tremolos, and excursions into rough-hewn metal.
There truly isn’t much that rubbed us the wrong way on this record. If anything, Ver Sacrum is circling the wagons a few times too many on occasion. It’s the repetition bug, baby. Not a very pronounced case of it, but a few iterations less of a riff or theme here and there might have worked wonders on the proverbial crispness of the record. But that is small potatoes compared to the tremendous improvements over their last album.
Ultimately though, Ver Sacrum ain’t your most accessible of records. But then, none of Dawn of a Dark Age‘s albums are. It will take multiple in-depth listens to uncover all of those sparkling gems this record contains. The ideation, song-writing, arrangement, and general production are top-notch. The piece has got flow when the story requires it. It adds juicy grit and roaring, ferocious harshness when things heat up. It goes full Post Black with an established and often solemn folky itch when there’s something positive to report (Il Rito Della Consacrazione). But lastly, it is this artful integration of a multitude of instruments, both archaic and modern, into a plethora of styles. Difficult choices expertly executed. And to that, we stand in awe.
Record Rating: 8/10 | Label: My Kingdom Music | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 12 December 2025
- Not sure if you noticed, but his name appears to be a derivative of the Sabines, an ancient people talked about on this record.-↩
- Samnites – Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samnites.-↩
- Sacred Spring, in Latin, a pagan ritual.-↩
- A man of many complicated names, so let’s just stick with his real one.-↩