Solefald

Funeral – Praesentialis in Aeternum Review

Funeral – Praesentialis in Aeternum Review

“December is the month where my favorite beers and coffee beverages make their welcome reappearance, and all is right with the world once more. Also making their welcome reappearance? Long-dormant Norwegian doom legends, Funeral. When we last heard from them, it was 2012’s Oratorium, but with a new label and members, how does Praesentialis in Aeternum stack up against their legendary classics?” Funeral for Christmas.

Hail Spirit Noir – Eden in Reverse Review

Hail Spirit Noir – Eden in Reverse Review

“I’m enjoying that I’m now able to look back at the 2010s with retrospect. In all my personal affairs, life developments, and the end of my formal education. But in particular, musically. I can now definitively make sweeping statements like ‘Sleep at the Edge of the Earth is the best record of the decade,’ and ‘there was a better decade of music from 1971-1975 than across 2010-2019.’ But, and pertinently to this review, I can also state that ‘Hail Spirit Noir (HSN) is one of the most creative metal bands which became active during the teenies.’” Hail teen spirit.

In Vain – Currents Review

In Vain – Currents Review

“Norway’s In Vain is a melodic death metal band with a blackened edge to them. The band, which double’s as Solefald’s live band and features Sidre Nedland who is the brother of Lazare, is back after five years with their fourth album, entitled Currents. They released Ænigma back in ’13 and it was mightily well-received.” You won’t believe what happens next!

In Vain – Ænigma Review

In Vain – Ænigma Review

In Vain hails from Norway, famous for its black metal, its fjords, its oil, its social democracy, but certainly not its progressive death metal. It’s actually a little strange that the land that brought us Borknagar, Enslaved, Ulver, and Solefald has never really produced its own Opeth or In Mourning, instead outsourcing that to its less affluent and pampered neighbor to the east (that’d be Sweden for the geographically challenged). Without getting too much into regional politics, it’s safe to say that given how high on the hog these Norwegians live—exploiting their Swedish workers and guzzling crude oil at the state’s expense—it’s surprising that none of them have wandered into the melodic, progressive death metal genre. They certainly have access to enough subsidies for the arts to do so if they wanted to.

Djerv – Djerv Review

Djerv – Djerv Review

So here’s an old record that has been out since June (so I guess it’s not old, but in the world of reviewing that’s a motherfucking eternity). I’ve been meaning to get to it and I just really haven’t had the time or level of mental stability to do it. But now that we’re on a more even keel and the urge to kill is lessening a bit, I’ve been able to come back to this one. And boy am I glad I’ve come back to this one. Because as I said when I reviewed their EP: Djerv is something that is actually truly cool and unique.

Vulture Industries – The Malefactor’s Bloody Register Review

Vulture Industries – The Malefactor’s Bloody Register Review

Another one of those bands that has floated in and out of my ‘sphere of knowledge’, I’d never really given Vulture Industries a fair chance. Part of this was probably just laziness on my part, but also the undeniable fact that the band had been pigeonholed as an Arcturus rip-off certainly didn’t make me want to check them out very much. As I’ve been pretty consistent about, I think that rip-off bands are usually boring, unimaginative and frustrating. And with a band like Arcturus that is easily one of the most unique bands to ever show up from the black metal scene, I couldn’t see how it could possibly be even remotely good. Certainly a band cannot re-imagine the most imaginative band from the first wave of Norwegian black metal.

Solefald – Norrøn Livskunst Review

Solefald – Norrøn Livskunst Review

Solefald is just a cool band and they have been for a long time. I first got into their stuff with the epic Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey which came out in 2005 and that record has maintained a standard place in my discography because of its amazing blending of black metal, progressive metal and rock and unique Norse sounds. While I was not equally as impressed with Black for Death and I’ve been a bit hit or miss on some of the band’s older material, I’ve always appreciated the band’s unique approach to the music they produce and their intensely creative outputs. Nothing they have put out has really disappointed me, it’s just a matter of being more or less into it.