My opinion on British black metal has been fairly well set-out over my time at MetalReviews; I think that there’s much to praise from the relatively less-well-known bands out there. I’ve hesitated with the English Heritage bands like Wodensthrone and Winterfylleth, however, not least because they seem to be followers rather than leaders. At best, their music seemed to be a local take on the sound already made close to perfect by members of the Ukrainian scene such as Drudkh. Yet Winterfylleth are certainly a solid band, and The Threnody of Triumph is a good album. Opening track A Thousand Winters alone is worth the purchase price, beginning with a storm of deep riffing, a backing melody becoming more apparent as the track develops until it takes over, the folk influences taking the lead and ending with a suitably epic male voice choir.

That’s probably the most stirring element here, for me, and moments of their use such as the acoustic break in The Svart Raven are when Winterfylleth are at their best. Folky interludes such as Æfterield-Fréon are also excellent, their melancholic blend of fiddle and guitar well-performed in their own right as well as a good foil to the metallic tracks. There’s only two of them, the band concentrating much more on the black metal elements than the folk, which can make the album seem rather repetitive as there’s not actually a great deal of difference between tracks, falling into much the same style of builds and falls. It’s solid, but not very exciting, and could do with much better songwriting.

Damning with faint praise? Perhaps… the likes of A Soul Unbound are nothing that Drudkh hasn’t done, and although the deep vocals on The Fate of Souls After Death are pleasingly Hate Forest-y, again, the melodies will seem very familiar. I’d like to hear the band exploring the folk elements further, making the music live up to the grandeur of the cover art. They never achieve the majestically hypnotic grasp of Ukrainian black metal at its best, but Winterfylleth offer a take on that sound that is still interesting, and The Threnody of Triumph shows the band at their best yet.