Thechopstickdrummer
Fogos seems like an unpretentious black metal band at first sight. At second, third, and any other sight after, the Catalonian kvlters remain unadorned in their style. This isn’t a negative—sometimes black metal is done best simplistically. Whether that applies to the band’s second record, Of Wyrm And Men, is something to be determined by a plethora of factors, most imperatively, if the music is, uhh, good?
The scarily monikered quintet (members’ stage names range from Virus Tremor to Saten Haz Im Nu… culty indeed) formed in 2021, releasing their debut, Corpses and Ashes, a year later. Through it, they found a sonic nesting site within the second wave of Scandinavian black metal. Their Spanish heritage hasn’t halted them from replicating the frosty, dreary soundscapes of Scandoblack, which critics claim could fit right in amongst the nabobs of that rawly-produced, church-burning circle of hellfire. Fogos is surely familiar with these topics; their name comes from the Portuguese word for “fire,” specifically the fires lighting the pathways to the underworld. Their music reciprocates their namesake through a devilishly melodic atmosphere.
Of Wyrm And Men is a robust Black Metal album that accomplishes everything a record of its kind needs to in under forty minutes. Like the blackened version of Chet Baker’s Chet Baker Sings, Of Wyrm And Men play to the standards: heavy emphasis on tremolo-picked riffing, blast-beats held for insane periods of time, and a dissonant, mostly screechy vocal working. This may sound contradictory to my claim of Fogos’ standardness, but the consistency of traditional second-wave black metal was surprisingly shifted by track four (“Balar”), where the album’s mood moved from enraged to grievous. Saten Haz Im Nu, the vocalist, explores segments of chanted clean vocals, both isolated and layered with the tride-and-true screams in multiple pieces, even dabbling in guttural practices. The atmosphere–a fully-produced one at that, taking away a little bit of Scandoblack influence–changes, too. The ending track (“Babel”) is on a whole different emotional level than the opener.
Logos brought some solidly executed black metal to the altar, but their record needs more identifying elements before it can truly match the icons of the 90s. Still, a sound like this from Spain is quite intriguing–it’s radiating a slight “I want to be from somewhere else” vibe. Spain’s black metal scene isn’t my most read-up on topic, but I’m positive that it has its own rituals to follow. Semantics and labels aside, Of Wyrm and Men is, uhh, good!
Label: Satanath Records/Poisoned Furrows Records
Release date: 21st June, 2026
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Fogos.official/
Country: Spain
Score: 6.66 divided by 2 / 5
Metal Eclipse Reviews 