When Sólstafir launched the title observe of Hin Helga Kvöl because the album’s lead single, it was met with a collective “Fucking hell!” The scrappy black metallic lower seemed again on the Icelanders’ excessive roots for the primary time since their 2002 debut album, Í Blóði Og Anda. It was an method that, within the 22-year interim, had turn out to be overwhelmed by a windswept post- rock tone, as majestic and large because the mountainous landscapes that impressed it.
Nonetheless, any hopes of album quantity eight being a full metallic comeback had been swiftly dashed by different, extra atmospheric snapshots getting launched. The few remaining purists nonetheless haranguing Sólstafir to this present day had been clearly upset, as has been their default setting for a very long time now. For everybody else, the title observe holds a key function in a file that, throughout 9 tracks, examines the four-piece’s previous, current and future with magnificence and depth.
Each shade of Sólstafir comes by right here. Nú Mun Ljósið Deyja is one other rampage of pace and fury, whereas Sálumessa is a spacious big, frontman Aðalbjörn ‘Addi’ Tryggvason’s vocals echoing over gradual, solemn guitars. Vor Ás and Freygátan contact related ranges of grace, albeit condensed into tighter buildings tailored for dwell reveals. Blakkrakki, alternatively, barges into Motörhead and AC/DC reverence, its easy cries of ‘Blakkrakki! Blakkrakki!’ transcending language limitations with their simple catchiness.
Later, Kuml sees Sólstafir crescendo of their most formidable mode. The finale defies style – slickly following rhythmic, Nordic chanting with keys, barrelling chords and prog rock saxophones – to announce that Hin Helga Kvöl isn’t only a retread by previous glories. Twenty years after shedding their punk and black metallic shackles, the band nonetheless have new concepts to discover. And, much more impressively, they’ll fold the outcome into their present soundscape with none concern in any respect.
Hin Helga Kvöl is out this Friday, November 8, by way of Century Media
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