If you’d asked me 2 months ago if I ever heard of Haimad, I would have candidly asked you what that would be. It doesn’t mean that I’m ignorant or that until now I’ve been living under a giant piece of rock, it simply means that, despite my best efforts to keep up with the scene over the years, some bands (ok, many) still went under my radar. But now I am here to fix this and I want to tell you why Haimad‘s first full length has quickly become, out of nowhere, one of my favorite black metal albums of 2025.
The story started in Sweden (Sundsvall, more exactly) in the mid 90s, when a band called Haimad released a demo tape and a couple of EPs before disappearing into the shadows. The absence lasted until 2017 when the original member Azradan brought some talented and experienced musicians together and ressurected the band. The result of this rebirth was a new EP, released 2 years later by Northern Silence Productions, suggestively titled “The Return“, which featured 4 new songs, as well as their demo versions as bonus tracks. And that was just the beginning…
…because on the the 7th of November AB the band’s first full length album “When Night Rode Across the North” finally saw the light of day, 30 years after the band’s inception. If that’s not a late bloomer, I don’t know what else it can be.
This album also came out via Northern Silence Productions, on a limited edition digipak and on vinyl but for some reason it still went under my radar. Until one day, when I accidentally saw an Instagram post about the album which instantly triggered my curiosity. I rushed to YouTube to check it out and it only took half a song to crush me to pieces, so I had to buy the album straight away.
But what is so fantastic about this album, you might ask? Well, first and foremost, in a little under 50 minutes, we are served a specialty that only a Swedish band could create: 7 tracks of pure nordic darkness, with lots of icy riffs, fantastic drumming, plenty of melody and amazing vocals, everything wrapped in beautiful keyboards. Yes, you are right to remind me that Norway has also had its share of symphonic masterpieces (Odium, Emperor, early Dimmu Borgir, among the selected few), but in my opinion Swedish bands have always known how to add that extra touch of “something” in their music, and this record makes no exception.
The album opens gloriously with the title track and you’re instantly immersed into a cold and desolate Northern landscape, where melancholy and savagery collide. The tracks and the atmosphere have a very strong nostalgic vibe but, while obviously hinting to other monuments from the past, they also avoid the clichés of the genre and imbue the record with a strong personal touch. I have no idea when they were written, but every song on this album bleeds with the enthusiasm and the energy of the mid 90s, combined with the experience that came later, at maturity.
Among the hellish blast beats and the skin crawling riffs (“Nen Cenedril” is the best example), Haimad has incorporated some well crafted instrumental/acoustic parts -they can also serve as both intros/outros- which enhance even more the beauty of the songs. The symphonic passages are there and sound amazing, but they do not steal the show. Their role is rather to counter balance the unrelenting aggression of the other instruments and to add more melancholy to the whole picture. Yes, sometimes the keyboards are majestic, but their cinematic grandeur is very well crafted and provides that much needed epicness without which the songs would have been bland.
“When Night Rode Across the North” is that kind of black metal album which grips you right from the start and doesn’t let you go even after it ends. The songs are written in such a way that’s impossible not to play them on repeat. They are very well tied together, they fall smoothly one into the other and, same as a raging river, they are foaming, they are nervous, they calm down only to resume their furious assault in a continuous perpetuum mobile. They are long and complex not because it’s cool or trendy, but because it’s needed, otherwise they would have lacked cohesion. And this is exactly what makes this album such a solid piece of work.
The ice cold riffs cut deep with their beauty, while Nils “Dominator” Fjellström‘s drumming dictates the rhythm with the fierce blast beats and double bass pedals. Infaustus‘s raspy vocals are evil and commanding, as their tone evokes (and invokes) the unforgiving malice of the frozen north. Speaking about the north, this album can make you think of other masterpices from the 90s, like Nord, In the Nightside Eclipse or For All Tid etc, but it does so by following its own, tormented path.
“When Night…” is not a modern record whatsover, even if it has been released this year. It is not a tribute to the past either, while it’s definitely deeply rooted in it. I see it as a well distinct entity, with its own personality and vision. It came out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. And this is exactly why I can’t recommend this album enough.
HAIMAD – “When Night Rode Across the North” Track List:
1. When Night Rode Across the North
2. Nen Cenedril
3. Where Serpents Wait in Withering Ruins
4. Naur
5. Voice of the Dread Abomination
6 .Of Smokeless Fire and Smouldering Ash
7. The Key to the First and Final Day
HAIMAD Line-Up:
Infaustus – Necromantic Devotion and Throat of Rot
Azradan – Conjurer of the Great Darkness and Strings
Szhethil – Nocturnal Worship and Orchestrations
Dominator – Funeral Storms and Battery
Band Links:
scrollsofdarmoth.com 
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