Nord...

Have you ever left a calm and warm place to go out into an intense snow storm? This is exactly what the beginning of SETHERIAL ‘s “NORD” feels like. This album is truly one of a kind, the most inspired release of a band that was one of the pillars of the Swedish Black Metal scene.

Let’s take it one step at a time. When one grabs hold of the CD, the first thing one notices is the cover. Back then, BM bands took great care when it came to the overall impression their albums made. SETHERIAL were no different. Inside the decorative, ancient looking frame, we are treated to the sight of falling snow and trees covered with their mantle of winter majesty. The title, “NORD”, is the most appropriate word to describe such surroundings. The band made a wise choice by opting for silver lettering for both their logo and the album title. The impression of bleakness and cold is made more overwhelming this way.

But why don’t we focus on the songs a bit. Some people have criticized the length of tracks 1 and 3, claiming that it’s too much for a song to last 12 to 14 minutes. This would indeed be true if “NORD” were meant for indoor listening. However, the album was created to invoke a specific mood when the presence of winter is mirrored in a spell of snow. Yes, “spell” in both its meanings. The listener is not expected to focus on the separate tracks presented on the CD. Far from that. The songs are akin to different acts of the same play, constituting an ensemble one must grasp to fully enjoy. And I definitely do!

The production of the album is exactly what it should be: the sound has that magical wintry tone to it, yet is not soiled by those artificial, overstressed high frequencies that later became the trademark of The Abyss studios. On the contrary, the audio aspect of “NORD” was raised to incredible dimensions of suggestibility. The snow-clad nature, the ever falling snow and the resounding music seem to melt into one dimension for the listener to explore. A grim dimension where life in any shape or form cannot subsist.

The lyrics are mostly in Swedish, except for “In the Still of a Northern Fullmoon”. This does not diminish anyone’s enjoyment of the album, as the texts, growled forth by extreme vocals, are not always easy to understand anyway. Both the lyrics and the vocals are not frontline here, they are merely another element that cries (literally) winter, like a howling wind carrying the snow towards unknown realms of darkness.

Would I recommend “NORD”??? If my words throughout this review made any sense to you, then the answer is yes. If you read it while skipping some parts that you could not identify with or wondered what I was writing about, then stay away from this BM masterpiece. Better yet: stay away from Black Metal!