Germany's depressive black metal duo Order Of Nosferat has set 25 December as the release date for its sixth album, Towards The Nightrealm Of Orlok, which will come out via Purity Through Fire on CD, A5 digipak, vinyl, and cassette tape formats. The first track, "Towards The Nightrealm Of Orlok", is already out.

Emerging from the shadows in early 2021, the duo of Count Revenant and Anzillu released two full-lengths that year: Necuratul and Arrival Of The Plague Bearer. And while both underground veterans are no strangers to black metal, the variety they unleashed with Order Of Nosferat was most definitely old, in every sense of the word: undead vampiric black metal had truly arisen! Like (vampiric) clockwork, two more full-lengths followed the next year - Nachtmusik in March and Vampiric Wrath Unleashed in December - proving that its bloodthirst could not be sated. While 2023 was relatively quiet, Order Of Nosferat "only" released a split album with Lunar Spells, showing a more nuanced and atmospheric side to its vampirism.

Alas, 2024 has proven to be predictably bountiful for Order Of Nosferat, as The Absence Of Grace arrived as the snows began to melt - and now, as those snows soon take hold, so does another full-length.

With Towards The Nightrealm Of Orlok, the duo returns to misery and comfort, regressing its black metal further back to somewhere around  1997-1999. Whereas The Absence Of Grace moved at a more measured pace and utilized a unique production style - crisp and cutting but somehow brittle, exceptionally ethereal in its effect - Order Of Nosferat kicks up the pace again, galloping triumphantly into the night in search of prey. The production's equally brittle, but authentically vintage: the fuzz 'n' buzz recalls old French vampires like Blessed In Sin, Winter Funeral, and Osculum Infame, esteemed company and spiritual forebears for this particular (and pure) style of black metal. And while the duo has always had exquisitely moonlit synths, aiding and abetting its melancholia, it truly meld into something majestic here, indeed taking the listener Towards The Nightrealm Of Orlok. Christmas day shall hereby be a bloody one, courtesy of Order Of Nosferat! Link