::REVIEW::

FÍR’s Het Sinistere Oog is a work of deliberate austerity, a miniature in length, but monumental in intent. Emerging a year after De stilte van God, the Dutch project abandons refinement entirely, opting instead for a live, unpolished recording that bleeds with urgency. Released by Amor Fati Productions, this five track mini album captures the essence of second wave black metal as lived experience rather than studied homage.
The opening piece, “Een Koude Fluistering,” begins with bleak synths before collapsing into a torrent of tremolo and blast beaten fury. The tone is unmistakably rooted in the early ’90s, yet FÍR’s delivery feels too immediate, too present to be mere revivalism. Tracks “Poort Achter Het Ontaarde Woud” and “Wapen Van Elementaire Duisternis” embody the project’s dual nature of hypnotic and dynamic elements, ritualistic yet corporeal. It’s the sound of self annihilation rendered through strings and distortion, each riff clawing toward transcendence through decay.
The album’s thematic center is transformation, not redemption, but destruction as precondition for renewal. The creator’s decision to record live in-studio, stripped of overdubs or polish, enacts that process sonically. The result feels unstable, alive, and uncomfortable in the way true metamorphosis must be. The mix allows every imperfection to cut through, creating an atmosphere that’s both raw and strangely intimate.
FÍR operates beneath the funeral moon yet aims for illumination. Where De stilte van God explored desolation as theology, Het Sinistere Oog burns the altar entirely. The performance is feral but disciplined, an act of purification through noise. By its close, on “Bloedroven,” FÍR emerges not as a torchbearer for the past but as a force reinterpreting its ashes. Het Sinistere Oog is black metal stripped to nerve and ritual, the sound of the self disintegrating to be remade.

Review written by FuegoCasa in collaboration with Headbangers Australia in November 2025.