Krig

The album has strong atmospheric qualities, in my opinion some of the best in 90's melodic/symphonic black metal. I will need to mention if you are not a fan of keyboards or black metal with strong melodic or symphonic elements, then perhaps this album is not for you. Usually this amount of keyboards might get on my nerves, but they really knew how to write some good melodies and fit them well into the songs adding a nice layer of atmosphere, even though it seemed to overshadow the other instruments at times. Their was a good balance of riffage, blast beats, and heinous ice chilled vocals to go with the more atmospheric elements such as the keyboard/synths and backing female vocals. The best examples of this would be in songs like "Skuggtronen" and "De Svarta Foljeslagarna". I wonder if the vocals were more echoed then it could have been pinnacle for the atmospheric quality, you can get a glimpse of this at the beginning of track 5. The album artwork could have been more interesting but it wasn't anything ridiculous or bad, I am only able to critique on the front cover since I do not own a copy myself.

The guitar melodies and harmonies were thoroughly good throughout the album, however the volume could have been increased slightly when recording. The drums did very well at keeping up with the many different riffs and employed some tasty fills throughout and you can hear mostly everything being played on the kit, so it was decently recorded. The backing female vocals were another enjoyable quality to this album, providing some added chill and melancholy to the record. Both the vocals and backing vocals were done pretty well, nothing special but perhaps the backing vocals made it above average. The album runs just five minutes short of an hour, with songs that can run much longer than the typical black metal track, but they knew how to keep me engrossed for most of this album with the many captivating riffs and keyboard melodies. If you are at all a fan of the melodic or symphonic black metal or what some may refer to as the more "twinkly" side of black metal, then I would give this a strong recommendation. It seems like the album was released a little too late for it to garner as much notoriety as bands like Emperor or Vinterland. I would consider this to be an underrated gem with some overall excellent writing and minor annoyances here and there.

Favorite Tracks: "The Shadow Warrior" and "De Svarta Foljeslagarna"