Barbarian Hellstorm

Fun fact: the more umlauts you have in your band's name the more people will take you seriously as a respectable artist. Seattle's Wölvefröst formed in 2013, the solo project of one Boone Sinsel, who quickly churned out the project's debut demo, Barbarian Hellstorm, which was released in December of 2014.

The demo features six tracks that could loosely be described as crusty black metal, but that really only paints part of the picture. Sure enough, the album starts off with caustic, crusty blackened riffing while the drums surge forth with frenetic a frenetic d-beat rhythm. Things begin to twist and turn with the remainder of the demo, with “Iron Fist of the Orc” adding some intensely heavy sludge riffing while “Burning a Troll” offers some stringent yet melodic blackened chord progressions. The vocals are layered through varying levels of distortion coming across as forbidding yet vile, but it's fitting given the style at play. The music never really loses the crusty punk edge of the opener, but the various offshoots through which its taken is eye opening.

Part crusty metalpunk; part black metal; part monstrous sludge: Barbarian Hellstorm is one hell of a ride. It's clear that Boone has some solid ideas, but perhaps a little tightening on the reins could help the overall play through not sound so choppy. I haven't checked out the following demo, Elven Tomb, yet, so hopefully some these minor issues are corrected. Regardless, Wölvefröst is a band with more than one umlaut that caught me off guard with their amalgamate blend of black metal and crust.