As with every creation touched by Roman Sayenko, who’s  the main force behind Windswept, the project’s new offering  “The Devil’s Vertep” embodies a razor-sharp identity and profound depth. Standing  tall as a historical and philosophical vessel, the album is drawing inspiration from the Black Book of Kremenets Castle 1747-1777, containing chronicles from the witch-trial proceedings of 1753-1754 in Western Ukraine.

Conceptual and genuinely captivating, the record unveils six new Windswept compositions that plunge the listener into an uncanny and oppressive atmosphere shaped by accusations, confessions, brutal executions, and of course – by the relentless force of fierce Ukrainian raw black metal,   burning with an authentic, unforgiving rage.  You  can feel a lot of the primal energy from the whole discography of Sayenko here, and it gets even darker and fascinating with each song.

While the previous works of Windswept embraced a more escapist  soundscape, “The Devil’s Vertep” strikes with far greater and blood-thirsty immediacy. Though this album marks Windswept’s first dedicated descent into Ukrainian demonology and witchcraft, the roots of these ideas reach much further back in Roman Sayenko’s creative lineage.

In the autumn of 1996, Sayenko began shaping a project titled KOZLONOGYI (“Goat-Footed”). Its concept was steeped in the very same folkloric and mythological currents that would later surface within “The Devil’s Vertep”. While KOZLONOGYI never progressed beyond a handful of rehearsals, its ‘skeletal remains’ and early riffs ultimately became the primordial soil from which Windswept’s newest work would emerge.

“The Devil’s Vertep” stands among Windswept’s most personal works to date. While the album carries a lot of atmospheric flourishes, the main force is  the raw, primal surge of energy of the fury, rising through the weight of the melodies and the cries with a sense of stark and ascendant grandeur. It was a genuine pleasure to absorb Sayenko’s furious  invocations, delivered on behalf of these lost souls, recounting the horrors from a past that must not be forgotten. The hauntingly beautiful guitars and their hypnotic cycles , pushing the listener into a trance-like drift, surrounded by the ferocious vocals, definetely evoked a transcedental moment.

Imagine “The Devil’s Vertep” as an ominous sonic novel – one that leads you along the fading footprints of extraordinary figures like Oryshka Lychmanykha and other souls who lived in distant, even more unforgiving eras than ours. Witchcraft has long been a theme in black metal, but still – it has been rarely  explored through these particular lenses. There is something uniquely compelling about surrendering yourself to such a narrative… one that is taken from the mysterious folklore of Ukraine.

Album: “The Devil’s Vertep”
Band: Windswept
Country: Ukraine
Release Date: December 12th, 2025
Label: Season of Mist Underground Activists
Pre-orders: https://orcd.co/windsweptthedevilsvertep