The Mountain’s Shadow Demo is the first release from solo artist Vast Night, who claims to have worked on the demo for two years. Nice! Congratulations on your first release. Now what is it? Well, this demo is six tracks of raw black metal with a bit of an “atmospheric” black metal sound. But that atmosphere comes not through muddling riffs, but through a commitment to sharp guitar aesthetics (like Ulver) and significant dark ambient influence. Vast Night has a snow-tearing shriek, but the album also features a lot of reverbed spoken word that evoke an appropriately creepy tone. While the demo doesn’t really have much in terms of straight-up riffs, that’s also not entirely the point; the pain and frost is a feature, not a bug. Ever been lost at night on a talus slope? Well, with Vast Night, you could be.

The Mountain's Shadow Demo by Vast Night