Mithraic Magazine

So early last year I started getting back to writing. Not for public consumption but for myself. Part of me knew that this website was in the works so I wanted to get my mind working on the right settings again. Album reviews are always something I’ve kind of struggled with so I tried to write a few, just to see how they read and to see what I would need to work on. So I grabbed a load of new (at the time) records and started to take notes and put them together into sentences then would flesh them out into a few paragraphs. It was slow but it worked. At one point in the process I came across Rhûn and Conveyance of Death and that’s when it changed. After four or five listens through I had a couple of hundred words down. I wish I still had that review to go back to now but I don’t.  However, the whole premise was “Rhûn have taken something that could be considered stale and overdone and kickstarted it back to life!” Now, a year later, Rhûn are back again with Burial Pact and they’ve done it again! 

A brief lesson in the lore of Rhûn. Rhûn is the work of Aaron Charles, otherwise of Fall of Rauros fame, that came to existence in 2021. Now as someone with an interest in the artistic side and concepts of the music, what really got my attention was the writing process, (in his own words) “Written and recorded with immediacy, in the haze and sweat of the summer months, its purpose is to communicate impulsively with the corporeal self.” That fucking works! That hits the spot! Such a great process. There’s no excuses, there’s no time to hide behind. It’s raw emotion and creativity, and works perfectly! 

This new Ep, released 14th March (yesterday) via House of Inkantation, doesn’t feel like just a continuation of Conveyance Of Death but more like a fresh exploration. This is a well written, well played, well produced, record. Rooted in traditional black metal though perhaps a step further away than the previous record. Burial pact still packs that hit, but with a strong grip on influences from other genres across the board, it’s not limited to its own constraints. Charles is very clearly a talented musician and composer and knows what he wants and what he wants it to sound like. Where CoD laid the groundwork, Burial Pact has evolved. We still have that unique, spontaneous emotion but this feels more defiant, more powerful, this has more authority and is a force that will not be moved. 

The ep opens with the short but effective instrumental intro track “Initiation” and for those new to Rhûn it is just that. It has this leading and interesting quality, an introduction that almost sets the scene for what’s to come without revealing the full force. There’s a sense of trepidation here that is quickly dispelled with the opening riff of “Burial Pact”. A brutal pick up that has everything. An almost classic death metal opening riff, the mid 90’s black metal fuzz, a razor sharp tremolo melody, and the intense vocal work of Aaron himself. As the track intensity drops, none of it feels like padding. This feels like an intentional journey through the mind of the composer, every single piece of this is needed to create this track. But this isn’t a one off. Moving on, this  is echoed through “Seeking The Fire”. Once again, every part of this is completely necessary to the track and to the tone of the EP as a whole. A slower track but no less intense. This track definitely has a stronger black metal sound to it, once again Aaron’s vocals capping off a determined and intense assault. And we end with “Gleaming Swords Howl”. This is another instrumental track but at just under 6 minutes long it certainly isn’t an “outro” as such. This one feels more controlled, there is less chaos here but as it builds, each layer adds something else to the track. There’s an acoustic, ambient sound here but that only adds to and emphasises the aggression that we got in the previous songs. That power, that devotion to the music and then the moment of contemplation as the ep draws to its end only leaves the listener hungry for more.

Up against “Conveyance Of Death” it’s hard to believe this is the same composer. However when you remember that these albums are “written and recorded with immediacy” then you begin to understand that there is a lot to unpack with Rhûn. What we have here is a much more controlled and absolute sound. Nothing is out of place, every element seems to be exactly where it needs to be to really hit you with this. “Burial Pact” isn’t an evolution of “Conveyance….” It isn’t there to be part 2. This is an evolution of Rhûn, this is another stage in the ever growing lore of Rhûn . 

– Thoughts by Zero, March 2025.