Vicky
I’ve known, talked to, worked with, befriended, and been a fan of Váthos for quite some time now, so when I listened to SOLACE for the first time, my first instinct was to think “oh, wow, can’t believe I know these people”, of course, in a good way.
In case you are less familiarized with their music, Váthos are an atmospheric and melodic black metal band from Bucharest (Romania), and their music speaks mostly about human emotions, about the good and the evil in our lives, meanwhile the background is as diverse as the aforementioned genre can get, with transitions from harsh, to mellow, to aggressive, to everything in between. Now, let’s dig deeper into SOLACE.
This is the band’s second album, and it shows a softer side of Váthos, with singer Radu Alexandru proving that he isn’t just a very good growler, but also a talented clean vocalist. The lyrics are in English, as well as in Romanian, so you definitely don’t get a chance to be bored. In terms of lyrics, my favorites are: draw my inspiration through you, immortalized in obsession, in lines and words, envisioned to me, the perfect subject, my muse. Hold my longing, in your embrace to be, give my devotion – a reason to bloom, will time forget to pull us apart? Endless dream, my thoughts at night (taken from “Muse”).
The album also contains one of the songs I think I may have listened to more than 100 times since its release, which is “Self-Loathing”, which initially came out in March 2025. The clean vocals, the lyrics (most of which are in Romanian, except for the chorus, by the way!), the intricate instrumentals giving the track depth, but they also make it extremely catchy for a black metal song, and the guitar solos tend to turn this song into something so good you feel like you turned on Der Weg einer Freiheit somewhere along the line. Despite that, Váthos remain true to their sound that made them one of the most appreciated groups in the Romanian black metal underground, especially on more aggressive songs like “Lights Off”, where the background is harsher, there are more growls, and you get to headbang with ease on quite a few parts.
The band also conquers the symphonic, gothic, and even doom horizons on “Strangers”, performed alongside singer Alexandra Romina Păduraru, who has collaborated with Váthos before, and whose ethereal voice proves yet again that she is worthy of comparison with that of Natalie Koskinen (Shape of Despair), Heike Langhans (ex-Draconian, Remina, etc.), or Kari Rueslåtten (The 3rd And The Mortal), to name a few.
Overall, to sum up everything I have said before, Váthos have managed to deliver another masterpiece of the metal craft, and still hold the name of “the greatest hope for Romanian Black Metal”, with the possibility of one day making it as huge as Negură Bunget (even though, honestly, I prefer Váthos over Negură, but that is just my opinion). We kill every version of ourselves on repeat, for who we want to be, instead, we became the mind killers (from “MindKiller”).
Label: Independent
Release date: June 7th, 2026
Website: https://vathos.bandcamp.com/
Country: Romania
Score: “Solace in Solitude”
Metal Eclipse Reviews 