Blodulv hail from an era of black metal physically and spiritually long ago. Their country of origin was Sweden and their first public recording – the Kristkrossare demo, on a then-young Total Holocaust Records – came in 2003, but their psychic center could’ve been the late ’90s or even earlier, when black metal still posed a threat to normcore metallers and was otherwise verboten to all but the most depraved. Put another way, “you had to work for it” back then, as the maxim goes, and here did Blodulv reside in a gutter of sound and thought. 

Their actual lifespan was incredibly brief – conservatively, they existed between 2002 and 2005 – but their body of work was incredibly prolific. Driven by drugs and madness, the duo of Grendel and Orcus burned brightly until that black flame consumed them entirely. And then they were gone, leaving behind a singular discography and shadowy apocrypha about their extracurricular deeds. 

Truly “Bad Music for Bad People,” to paraphrase the Cramps, but more importantly BY Bad People…a feat far too rare these days, which is all the more opportune that Blodulv’s central trio of albums is exhumed for a new generation of black metallers seeking true danger and taboo.