Psychedelic Icelandic black metal - just what the doctor ordered! Altari's new album Kroflueldar sees the band fusing classic black metal ideas with sounds that are profoundly weird and more troubling. This is a record that delves into the more surreal and twisted side of the genre, borrowing inspiration from bands like Deathspell Omega and Craft in order to refine a sound that is twisted and larger than life. It's hard not to want to lose yourself in these hellscapes that they paint, but it speaks to the profoundly bleak nature of the music.
Kroflueldar is a record that will continue to fascinate listeners even after the first spin. The cover art should be some indication of how bleak and interesting the record can become. It's an album that uses avant garde and off kilter melodies to force listeners to embrace some of the more bizarre sides of the genre. Tracks like "Vitisvilltur" really lean into this and emphasize a sense of despair and atonality that makes them endlessly fascinating. This certainly isn't black metal for the faint of heart, but for those of us who live and die by the stuff, it's hard to do any better than what Altari have begun to evolve into on this album.
Altari have taken the vaunted Icelandic scene in a fresh new direction and seem eager to continue to push the boundaries of what this music can be. The band use Kroflueldar to showcase a sound that is intricate and wonderfully challenging. Now the question remains if they can continue this excellence. While this is certainly an alienating record and one that I think many black metallers might not get, for those of us looking for a healthy dose of the weird and otherworldly in our black meta lsoudns, this is a record that encapsulates a lot of those twisted energies.
Pre-order the album!
https://www.svartrecords.com/en/product/altari-kroflueldar/11084
No comments:
Post a Comment