Formed in 2002, when Finnish black metal was just beginning to assert its dominance over the underground, BLACK BEAST released a self-titled 7" EP in 2005 and, a year later, a split album with comrades Bloodhammer. Across both recordings, the then-duo exhibited a sound that slotted well alongside the prevailing Finnish paradigm, yet they refreshingly exuded a Motorheaded aspect that was asskicking to the extreme. Strangely, the name BLACK BEAST thereafter receded into the shadows, only to appear once again in 2019 with their longawaited debut album, Nocturnal Bloodlust. Now a power-trio, BLACK BEAST indeed picked up exactly where they left off...and then pumped that quintessential Finnish black metal full of black magick, witchcraft, and (of course) nocturnal bloodlust. Presumably here to stay, BLACK BEAST return to survey the carnage with second album Arctic Darkness. A simple-yetelegant title, Arctic Darkness is the sound of BLACK BEAST maximizing that atmosphere. The Motorcharge is most definitely still there, as is the almost-sexual surge suggestive of classic Impaled Nazarene - grandfathers of both Finnish black metal AND bringing back the Motorhead influence into black metal at large - but with a subtly subliminal glaze of synths and a wider variation of tempos and general songcraft, the now-quartet march into new realms across this Arctic Darkness; just witness the utterly EPIC ten-minute closer, "Hymn of the Freezing Wind," where clean 'n' chorused guitars play counterpoint to a sleazy four-on-the-floor beat...truly, this landscape is a much more brazen one.