Review: Hulder – Verbolgen

July 16, 2026

The blackest metal to blast under a flaming dusk

I’ve never liked it when metal outlets describe bands fronted or primarily steered by women as “female metal bands;” even if they’re covering these bands and projects in a positive light, the phrasing and using the word “female” always felt off to me, as if they’re saying there’s metal music, and then there’s female metal music. I bring this up because that’s how I first heard of Hulder, the black metal project masterminded by one Marliese “Marz” Beeuwsaert who is of Belgian descent. This project has had a lot of well deserved praise and fanfare, and when 20 Buck Spin announced their new album Verbolgen I had to take the opportunity to talk about them.

My blurb about “female metal bands” is something that I wanted to quickly address because as far as I’m concerned there’s no reason to catalogue projects led by women (cis, trans or otherwise) as separate from the bulk of metal music, yes metal tends to be a sausage-fest 8/10 times. It really shouldn’t be, nor should we reinforce the bad, misogynistic habits that make it so. Anyways, what I enjoyed about Hulder when I first started listening to them was how she did an excellent job at making classic, medieval-flavored black metal with a fresh sheen. While the music is very reminiscent of the second wave—primarily the more melodic strand of Scandinavian black metal—there is a lot of variety, mainly in the guitarwork; I’ve always admired how Hulder manages to capture the cold riffs and melodies of traditional black metal, but with a distinctly USBM-centric quality. On this new album, the use of walls of noise and layers of guitars creates a perfect blend of the Scandinavian grimness and that distinctly American grit of a band like Profanatica whilst still being its own thing.

The project continues to be led primarily by Marz, but a very significant change that occurred between this record and the last is the inclusion of multi-instrumentalist Necreon aka Sam Osborne of Funebrarum fame as the core lineup’s bassist and backing vocalist. Necreon has been a recurring collaborator for Hulder, but has now joined in full, and in this record his presence is much more noticeable. He’s an excellent complement to Hulder’s riffs and vocals but my one gripe is that because of how the guitars are layered, the bass tends to blur amid the heavier riffs. Thankfully, it’s never completely missing from the mix.

In that regard, Hulder is truly a terrific guitar player, the production and mixing on this album really lets you hear how good her riffs are, as she perfectly blends sorrow, majesty and aggression in a seamless fashion, –her skill is also present when she brings in acoustic guitars– which are then enhanced by the leads of Tanner “Keld” Anderson from Obsequiae –he also plays the hurdy gurdy and keyboards– but it is all in the foundation built by Hulder. Incidentally, her growls are also amazing, which she compliments with clean singing in key moments as well as the backing growls of Necreon.

As a whole, the album is incredibly cohesive and consistent. The mood is very dour and cold, but with occasional moments that are, simply put, epic in scope and in execution, as shown in tracks likes “Den Nacht Zijn Lied” and “View from Nemeton,” which alternate between glorious moments and pure aggression. While the album certainly sticks to its chosen atmosphere and groove with little variation, it is never boring nor does the record feel overlong or winding; it hits that sweet spot by being stuffed with great ideas and varied instrumentation while remaining focused and tight. Most importantly, the music is an evolution of the previous record which was more stripped back while retaining all its good aspects, and that to me is the mark of a great band: being able to define their own sound and voice while evolving with each record in a consistent fashion.