By: Anders

Posted: May 15, 2006

To be honest Kampfar is one of those bands that never have been able to catch me in the past, they have more or less been the weakest of bands, at the certain times they have released their albums throughout time and have never gotten the attention they deserve. That was why I was very surprised when I threw this album in my player, as it caught me more or less instantly. It is not like a new recipe has been put at use or something like that, this release more or less sounds like it could have been made 10 years ago, and the atmosphere it contains, is what a lot of new records and bands miss today.

The band has dubbed their style as "Norse Pagan Folklore Metal" and I guess that description fits well. It covers old school black metal, spiced up with a lot of dark and cold atmosphere, leading ones thoughts towards the great age of Vikings and even further back. The riffing is cold and melodic, inducing both feelings of icing landscapes, melancholic spheres and majesty. The guitars are used really effectively and are a great lecture on how it is possible to make extremely atmospherically music, without keyboards, all it needs are skilled guitarists and good songwriters. And the song writing part of Kampfar is another force of the band, the songs on "Kvass" are well-crafted and catchy and the atmospheres they induce, adds a lot to the final impression of the music. The drumming is simple and keeps the rhythm steady, with some good pace shifts here and there. And as the icing on the cake, we have the grim and harsh vocals, spitting forth the messages, with a good deal of emotion and passion behind them.

This is a good and strong album from the Norwegians and a living proof of good and atmospheric metal with roots in the old Norwegian black metal school still can be delivered without any compromise and still sound good. If you miss the good old days or just want a trip down memory lane to experience some nostalgia, without it at any means sounds outdated, this is a good album to pick up and use some time on. And to stress it, even though this is metal sounding like 10 years ago, it is still sounding fresh and very alive, with a message to deliver, it's not a rehash at all, even though all might not be as original as other. And props up for the great and atmospheric cover artwork, which fits very well with the overall atmosphere in the music.

Rating: 7½/10

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