WINDSWEPT: A Sign of the Cloven Hoof (Gold)

Release date September 25. Gatefold, Gold with dark red marble disc, LTD 150 copies.

Side A:
1. Behind the Masks of Piety [11:01]
2. Goat-footed [5:58]
Side B:
3. Buried Face Down [4:43]
4. Thieves of the Stars [8:29]
5. Towards the Abandoned Church [4:52]

Total playing time: 35:12

Windswept is yet another creative vehicle for Roman Saenko, known for his work in Drudkh and Hate Forest among others. While most of his musical creations stem from black metal, thankfully, Windswept is consistent in this regard and unapologetically restrictive, retaining Saenko's characteristically hypnotic riffing coasting atop a wintry atmosphere.

In 2024, Windswept aligned with Primitive Reaction for the release of the mini-album Der eine, wahre König. Now, the band return under that banner with their fourth album, A Sign of the Cloven Hoof. Inspired by Ukrainian demonology and Mykola Gogol's early stories, A Sign of the Cloven Hoof maintains Windswept's characteristic surging austerity - solemn yet fiery, impassioned but deadpan, violently unrestrained whilst artfully rendered - but with two of the 35-minute album's tracks stretching to or exceeding ten minutes, new(er) vistas of the trio's imagination open up. That they can downshift so effectively - nay, poignantly - into something perhaps more powerful, all while retaining that austere intensity, speaks volumes about the creativity at the core of Windswept. Simply witness 11-minute opener "Behind the Masks of Piety" and its haunting second half: no doubters shall remain. Elsewhere on A Sign of the Cloven Hoof, the momentum remains monolithic even if the delivery becomes relatively livelier; however, labor under no illusion that there's anything superfluous here, either in exposition or delivery; Windswept are nothing if not unadorned, iron-fisted and -willed to the very end. Those who know, know, and will heed A Sign of the Cloven Hoof.