Album Review: Fogbreather - ...And Every Stone Remembers

Album Review 

Artist: Fogbreather 

...And Every Stone Remembers

Release Date: February, 06, 2026

Score 9/10 

Review by Rick Eaglestone

Fogbreather have just released a debut that announces new voice in British black metal whilst paying homage to the ancient landscapes that inspired it. ...And Every Stone Remembers

This is the brainchild of Nre, the creative force behind And Now The Owls Are Smiling, Margaret Read, and Mood Hoover, and whilst those familiar with his previous work will recognise certain sonic signatures, ...And Every Stone Remembers feels like a distinct entity entirely – a raw, melodic black metal offering that doesn't merely visit ruins but inhabits them, breathing their fog-laden secrets into every tremolo-picked passage and anguished shriek.

The album announces itself with Regrets In The Mortar, a six-minute journey that establishes the project's aesthetic immediately. The production is deliberately raw without sacrificing clarity – you can feel the bite of the guitar tones, the urgency in the drumming, yet there's space within the mix for atmosphere to seep through like moisture through old stone. It's this balance that makes Fogbreather so compelling; this isn't black metal that bludgeons you into submission but rather draws you into its mist-shrouded world and refuses to let you leave.

Title track ...And Every Stone Remembers serves as the album's philosophical centrepiece, and what a magnificent piece it is. Here, Nre's melodic sensibilities shine through with a melancholic grandeur that recalls the best of UK black metal whilst maintaining its own distinct voice. The guitars weave intricate patterns that feel less like riffs and more like architectural blueprints for structures that exist only in memory, and I found myself completely transported by the midpoint – standing in Binham Priory myself, surrounded by centuries of accumulated silence.

A Spirit On The Staircase continues this immersive quality, and I must say, the track titles alone deserve recognition for their evocative power. There's a literary quality to this work that extends beyond mere aesthetics – these aren't just songs about ruins, they're meditations on the layers of existence that permeate these spaces, the emotional residue left behind by those who came before. The instrumental Portals serves as a brief interlude, a moment to catch your breath before the album's most ambitious statement.

Where Ancient Bargains Bind is the album's crowning achievement at just over nine minutes, and not a single second feels wasted. This is Fogbreather at their most expansive and confident, building from atmospheric beginnings into a maelstrom of tremolo guitars and blast beats before settling into passages of genuine beauty. The dynamic shifts feel organic, purposeful – like walking through the nave of a ruined cathedral as light shifts through broken stained glass. It's in these extended compositions that Nre's vision fully crystallises, and the result is absolutely mesmerising.

As If The Night Itself Began To Dream brings us back to more concise territory, though no less evocative. There's a dreamlike quality here, as the title suggests, with melodies that shimmer and fade like memory itself and then the album concludes with Her Breath, A Fog Of Secrets, At over eight minutes, this final statement encapsulates everything that makes ...And Every Stone Remembers such a compelling debut. The fog metaphor that permeates the project's name and aesthetic comes full circle here – secrets revealed and concealed simultaneously, truths that exist in the spaces between notes, in the reverb trails that fade into silence.

If I'm being totally transparent, this is exactly the sort of album that will find a permanent place in my collection in physical format. It's something I will return to time and time again, not just for its musical merits but for the transportive quality it possesses. Each listen feels like a pilgrimage to those forgotten places, a communion with the stones that remember when we've long forgotten.

 

Fogbreather have managed to capture not just the aesthetic of decay, but the very essence of what it means when history seeps into the present through fractured walls and forgotten corridors.