Valhalore – Beyond The Stars – Album Review
15th April 2025It came in the post. I didn’t order it. The postman looked worried. I opened it anyway. VALHALORE’s Beyond The Stars spilt out, all noise and prophecy and suspicious warmth. I haven’t slept right since.
The first track hit like a stampede of celestial livestock. Guitars? Yes, and something else. Something stringed, maybe cursed. The rhythm section doesn’t so much keep time as bend it, like a watch left in the sun. The vocals come in sideways—half sermon, half exorcism. I took off my hat without realising.There’s melody, yes—but it’s not polite. It grabs. It pulls. It drags you across a field of stars and dares you to weep. And I did, but only a little, and only into my sleeve. Folk instruments waltz with the metal like old lovers meeting on neutral ground. It’s tender, like having your spine readjusted by a taxidermist who learnt his craft from lightning strikes – there’s a dreadful sort of care to it, and afterward, you’re properly aligned but find yourself unable to sleep on your back without dreaming of antlers.
Every track has its own weather system. Some howl. Some shimmer. Some crouch in the corner until you’re not looking and then leap out shrieking with harmony. Wayfinder made the mirrors in the house go cloudy for an hour. I think that’s a good sign.
They don’t do “songs” in the usual way. These are events. You don’t listen to them. You attend them. You bear witness. You nod slowly while holding something solid, just in case.
And it doesn’t stop. Not once. Beyond The Stars stumbles forward with the grace of a cursed puppet—jerking, snarling, full of teeth it didn’t used to have. It heaves its sound like an ancient engine coughing back to life, all gears and prophecy. Time doesn’t pass—it warps, squirming round the edges like it’s trying to escape the room.
The seconds don’t tick. They twitch. They stretch into odd little sigils your nan used to draw when the weather got weird. And just when you think you’ve caught its rhythm—just when your bones start tapping along—something breaks: a howl, a rustle, a voice like wind in a crypt, or a note so wide and weighty it makes the wallpaper blister.
Is it metal? Is it folk? Is it the sound the earth makes when it remembers what was buried beneath it? No one knows. No one should. But whatever it is, it works. It buzzes behind the eyes. It’s like discovering a letter sewn into your own skin while you sleep, written in a language you’ve never seen but somehow understand perfectly, signed with the tooth of something that shouldn’t have teeth at all.
You won’t understand it, not really. But that’s fine. Understanding isn’t required. Only listening. Quiet now—it’s starting again. I’ve hidden the CD under the floorboards now. It’s safer that way.
By the end, I wasn’t clapping. I was just breathing differently. That’s how it leaves you.
Don’t play this album near open water. Don’t play it in a church unless you want something to answer back. But do play it. Loud. Often. And never, ever alone.
Score 8/10
Track List
01 – Life
02 – Edge Of Forever
03 – The Storm
04 – Within The Fire
05 – Dusk
06 –Wayfinder
07 – Dawn
08 – Horizon
09 – The World Between
10 – Aether
11 – Heart Of The Sea (feat. Anna Murphy)
12 – A Walk Among The Stars
Label – ROAR
Release – 11th April 2025
