I, too, love to put music on and just sink into the atmosphere and emotion, taking a well-deserved trip somewhere else of just getting an artistic reinvigoration. Taking on German power Junon, helmed by a single artist of the same moniker, is something altogether different. This is a mind fuck, a journey into the most bizarre sections of your psyche from which you stay away on purpose.

“The Golden Citadel of the Astral Sphere” is the project’s debut album, a four-track, 42-minute excursion that uses black metal as a base and then warps it into all kinds of strange configurations that could make you feel uneasy and anxious. All in good ways, actually. Junon’s vocals go from guttural shrieks to calls that reach up to the heavens with designs to poison them, and the end result of taking on this creation is a mental challenge that reshapes what you think of these dark arts. I’m not even sure these words do this thing justice.

“Propheten der blauen Flamme” attacks, but it’s noticeably lopsided melodically, in a really enticing way, warped fury burning through eerie strangeness, haunting as static spits. The playing bursts into agonized wails and pathways that’ll scramble your thinking, whispers swirling, moans falling like blood drops, weird warbles making skin crawl. The heat engulfs as screams torment and tear, the drama exploding before burning out. “Unterm Glutmond” brings melodic tidal waves, the vocals ravaging, eventually turning into an acidic rant, the tempo storming. The singing turns into a bellow, the pace mesmerizing and chilling, ugliness rushing through the seams, the energy tingling before expiration.

“Inanitas Cedit Profundo (Die Leere weicht der Tiefe)” is a bizarre form crawling through cracks in the earth, deep chants enthralling as creaking voices prod nerves. Cryptic horrors continue to spread, the coldness rising and enveloping. Closer “Dolorosa” is a force, running 21:08 and quivering and confounding, setting a soundscape over the first several minutes. Finally the growls claw, the sound morphing in front of you, guitars tangling as the pace lurches. The blows then come harder, faster, a corrosive, hazy pall swallowing the energies, the riffs melting metallic soup over rock. Grisly savagery sinks in its teeth, and then hypnosis spreads, the drums erupting out of that, morbid tendencies having their way. Howls lash as mystical beams jolt, the playing exploding into volcanic terror, rushing as Junon’s operatic calls squeeze the cosmos, the intensity spiking, guitars scraping glass as the pressure decreases, fading into a buzzing void.

“The Golden Citadel of the Astral Fear” is a bizarre, disturbing debut, one that takes black metal and turns it into black magic, the music not leaving your cells. Junon’s approach to this style is deranged, unsettling, and exciting, something that feels conjured from another plane. This is an album that doesn’t fit neatly on a playlist or in a subgenre shelf and really lives to embody and then consume this music’s morbid spirit.  

For more on the band, go here: https://junonofficial.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://metalodyssey.8merch.us/

Or here (Europe): https://metalodyssey.8merch.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/