Black Metal History Month- Greve : "Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå"

 This band from Sweden sticks to a pretty cvlt 90s Swedish black metal sound. Not overly leaning into the Dissection side of things. I can take this sort of thing in low doses. I appreciate what is going on. There is a measure of melody worked into the mystique. The drummer is blazing fast so the rest of the song follows suit. Not the most original thing I have heard. But they are good at what they are doing. The vocals are more of a texture, they are a mid-range rasp that screams into the echo of the void. At the end of the day the opening track will leave me asking, ok what else can you guys do. If this is answered with more blast beats, I will be less impressed with each song. 

The second song is not as blast beaten. It works off more of a gallop though does not really veer wildly in terms of dynamics as it comes straight for your throat with little in the way of a subtle touch.  There are some lower growls but that is about all of the variation we are getting here. From there they seem pretty intent at blasting ahead on you at full speed. There are some periods of simmering and most of these are met with firing back with the same kind of iron headed determination. I am glad to hear that as a whole black metal is moving away from the lo-fi production and murky mixes as this album is intense but the sounds are crip so you can hear what is going on. On one section you can even hear the bass! The songs do tend to run a little long. They are more adventurous in their arrangements, but all the moving parts could just as easily fit into half the time. This band's straightforward songs tend to sound just like everyone else doing this sort of thing.

Eventually I begin to feel a little more of what they are doing as long as they are bringing more atmosphere and emotion to the table, despite the moments they do this the urge to blast it all away into oblivion are not resisted. Before I get to the last song this album has begun to feel like something I am enduring rather than enjoying, as music allowed to fade into the background it works better. The last song does have some cool odd shifts to the otherwise standard black metal epic guitar riffs. I will give this album a 7 as they are good at the sound they have created and play them well they are just not that original and nothing sets them apart for me.