Mania / Huldrekall

Mania and Huldrekall are both part of the Cascadian black metal scene, and both have members who’ve worked on other amazing projects. Nate, from Mania played in Leech and members of Huldrekall played in the black metal group Wake, who sadly only released a demo and a split with Skagos before disbanding. These musicians have proven to have an excellent talent for extreme metal, and do not disappoint on this release.

Mania presents us with 2 tracks of dark black/doom metal. Their music twists and turns, shifting between aggressive black metal, and mid-paced doom. The twisting and turning nature of the music is what makes it so great. It gives off an almost insane vibe, with strange, yet melodic, doom and black metal riffs. The song “Collapse of Spiraling Iteration II” demonstrates this atmosphere perfectly, building up to a chaotic climax of riffing and noise drowned out by spoken word samples discussing the future state of humanity before breaking down into mid-paced tremolo riffing and completely indecipherable screams.

Huldrekall gives us a more atmospheric approach to black metal, with fuzzed-out guitars and somewhat depressive melodies. The three tracks Huldrekall give us are their first recording as a band (other than an earlier version of “Trapped Within” that appeared on the Struggles Vol. 1 tape comp.) and it’s a great first output. These three songs are less chaotic & complex than Mania’s side of the split, but this allows them to act as a good counterpart to Mania’s music. Ranging from traditional tremolo riffing to slower ambient-ish interludes, a strong sense of melody and melancholy is held from beginning to end on Huldrekall’s side of this split. I would go as far as to say that Huldrekall’s music is somewhat post rock influenced in it’s transitions from softer to more intense sections.

Overall this is an excellent split from two bands whose music complements each other very well, and it serves as a great introduction for Huldrekall, who show that they have much potential for future releases, as well as being another excellent 2011 release from Mania, whose self-titled full-length is definitely worth a listen as well. Highly recommended.