Nidingr: " The High Heat Licks Against Heaven"

This band goes all the way back to the first wave of Norwegian Black Metal. They features guys who have played with Mayhem and Gorgoroth, so this is the real deal.  While they are free flowing with their blast beats, they are not so quick just to shit on the bass player and bury him in the blast beats. The second song finds them more recklessly pursuing feral speed alone. The vocal are kind of Marduk like in their raw dry mid range. When they slow down a little they create more of an older Bathory feel for the "Ballad of Hamther", there is a spoken word section that is a little folk metalish. The vocals begin to make all the sound the same by the time we get to "On the Dead Body Shore". They do take on a more hard core punk cadence in a few places. The guitar begins to hear what is happening and picks up the slack adding the melody.

Things take a more dramatic change on "Gleipnir"  and grow darker. It almost sounds like a different band all together. The vocal are heavily effected and mix back behind the throb of the guitar and when they come back in it feels more like Neurosis. The drummer steps up his game on "Sol Taker" and the go in a more conventional black metal direction though I can still hear touches on punk in the vocals. Things stay pretty fucking dense on that song and it wins me over. After this one they switch it up back backing off on the intro to the following song and letting whispered vocals offer a call and response to the guitar and it still summons more of a sludge like vibe.

A deafening blast opens "Heimdalargar" that will crush your speakers before they slow into some equally as powerful. They remember their dynamics and break it way down. If Enslaved made an album with Neurosis I suppose the results might be similar. This is the albums strongest song on many levels, it is one of the heaviest black metal songs you will hear this year. "Valkyries Assemble" storms in with a hefty crunch that still allows enough room to feel like folk metal is dribbled in over the testosterone. There is an equally dense throb to "Naglfar is Loosed". Female vocals chime in on this one and add a needed melodic layer that is echoed in the overall tone of the song. I'll round it up to an 8 as it grew on me. This comes out February 10th