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Solstice is a band I was only familiar with by name prior to the release of their 2018 album White Horse Hill. Solstice boasts a Warlord-like discography spanning 30 years and hosts of splits, demos and compilations but only three full-length albums. Still, when Sargon posts "FUCKING FINALLY!!!!" in response to a band's first album in 20 years, it is clearly a release that bears looking into. Here's what I found.

White Horse Hill is a huge monolith of epic heavy metal with riffs that would lay cities to waste and vocals with a depth of emotion that would bring Vikings to tears. I just can't begin to adequately describe the massiveness of the atmosphere Solstice has created on this album. It's like being transported to another land in another time where true-hearted warriors protect pristine realms from all comers. Solstice expertly vary the tension, issuing a call to arms with the raucous "To Sol a Thane" then look inward with the introspective and subtly beautiful "Beheld, a Man of Straw." Next up is the rallying cry of "White Horse Hill," a song I was shouting along with almost immediately. "For All Days, and for None" once again slows things down in preparation for the majestic, thundering drums of "Under Waves Lie Our Dead." Solstice are godly songwriters and if it takes them 20 years to perfect songs like these, so be it.

If you have any metal running in your veins, White Horse Hill is an album you simply must hear. I haven't been this overwhelmed since Old Morning's Dawn and The White Goddess. Yes, it is that good. Support true heavy metal and buy without hesitation.