Prong - Primitive Origins EP (1987)

Primitive Origins might have served personally as more of a primer for the brilliant record to follow, but it's apparent that even in its origins, Prong was a slight standout from the rest of the crossover crowd. Not forward, nor above, but sideways, and below, sporting a novel approach to the style that would drip straight into their sewer-thrash future. I liken this EP to a mix of their NYC peers and the West Coast splatterthrash crossover of acts like Cryptic Slaughter or The Accüsed. This isn't quite so forceful or powerful as a disc like the Crumbsuckers' Life of Dreams, but it certainly takes a more nuanced and left-field approach to its riffing, which would carry through to all of their later releases as they morphed their sound throughout the 90s and beyond, until only recently when they seem to have settled on a particular polished thrash style for a number of subsequent albums.

While the whole three-piece lineup here is solid, I think it's really Tommy Victor who contributes the most distinct ingredients. His vocals have a downtrodden gruffness to them which is both abusive and ugly, somewhat more primitive even than a lot of the other tough guy barkers in the NYC crowd. It's almost like having some battered construction worker or public works engineer coming off shift and grumbling at you in some late night greasy spoon, and yet the lyrics are quite heavily sociopolitical and fairly interesting even by the pissed off standards of the 80s. His guitars, though, are even more interesting, raw and fast but not afraid to inject a little eerie dissonance into the chord choices that makes them feel subterranean, or some more pure metallic tremolo picking parts like the intro to "In My Veins" or the bridge of "Watching". There are frilly, wild lead guitars here too, something you don't always expect due to the punk roots it has sprouted from. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of angry hardcore charge riffing happening all over the place, so fans of Agnostic Front and Sick of It All will find plenty to love here, but Prong certainly didn't shy away from the longhair aspect of their band, and it's this complete embrace of the varying aspects, and those they'd adopt down the road, that propels them.

Now, granted, I don't personally find a lot of the riffing here to be quite that memorable, especially the more standard hardcore/crossover riffs of which there are a good amount. Some of the patterns certainly set up tracks they'd write for Force Fed, my favorite Prong album to this day, but the notes just don't always fall into place, and this actually has a cleaner production than that album, crude by some standards but not as rash and raw and atmospheric sounding as the successor. But with eight tracks in under 20 minutes, its concise and energetic enough that you don't ever have time to get bored with whatever material you find lesser, and there are enough of those interesting little shifts here to keep your attention. I'd also say that, despite the production differences, this was one of the periods where the group's sound evolved the least between releases. Sure, Force Fed has more of a dynamic range, stickier riffs, and more abrasive production, but the style between the two is overall comparable enough that if you enjoy one you'd be drawn to the other.

Considering the historical value of this record, and the subcultural popularity of New York hardcore which thrives on to this day, I'm kind of surprised Primitive Origins hasn't seen some sort of large label re-release with one of the imprints Prong later circulated around towards. For all I know there is some sort of legal issue or lack of interest by the band, but I think this is one that fits right in with an interest in that time period, and while I'm not as much a fan of this as I am Brightside, Blood Sweat and No Tears, Life of Dreams or even the Crumbsucker's own metallic evolution Beast On My Back, it's a good one to break out once in awhile for those genuine old tones, and its earnest energy. At the same time, it's really just hovering over the manhole the band would plunge into for one of the best, grimiest, and still relatively underappreciated albums to ever hail from that scene.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (the walking skeletons still cling to life)

https://prongmusic.com/

Testament - Titans of Creation (2020)

It's rarely a good sign when the first thing everyone seems to be discussing about a new record is a disdain for its cover art, and yet that's what I encountered on numerous forums and social media outlets before a lick of Testament's 13th full-length album Titans of Creation had graced my ears. Personally I don't think it's all that bad of a choice; Eliran Kantor has a distinct painting style and I think it does translate rather well with this particular image, even if it's not quite as cool as his work on Dark Roots of Earth or Sigh's In Somniphobia. The one hangup I can agree with is that the 'titans' might have had more bestial faces, or at least some meaner scowls as they hammered out the universe and populated it with fiery wine-beings. In that case it might have been a better marriage with the band's thrashing aggression, but if you can remember Testament's earliest range of covers, Kantor's run over these latest four albums has at least been more involved and interesting to look over.

Musically, this is Testament-by-numbers to the extent that I think I've run through the entire album a half dozen times with hardly any of its riffing progressions ever really standing forth from the rest, or from the band's somewhat substantial catalog. This is certainly channeling the 'pure' thrash metal the band pioneered through it's first four albums, with chug heavy rhythm guitars moving at a bombastic middle pace as a seat for Chuck Billy's domineering vocals and the Skolnick/Peterson leads. A near comparison would be The Gathering or The Formation of Damnation, the latter of which I quite enjoyed, examples of when the band righted its ship from the death metal distractions inherent on efforts like Demonic or, to a lesser extent, Low. But for some reason this selection of cuts isn't quite breaking the skin for me as they are for others. I was no huge fan of its predecessor, The Brotherhood of the Snake, but I think one of the issues here is that the album actually becomes its most interesting when the band remembers the rhythm section it's equipped with, and takes on a more progressive and curious composition, like the opening to "City of Angels" where DiGiorgio's thicker bass lines play a more prominent roll than they do under the bulk of the rhythm guitars on most of the thrashers.

There are certainly a few positives here. The production is chunky but beautifully balances out the instruments and vocals, with a clear drum mix, a perfect heft to the bass guitar, and plenty of room for the little effects they put on the bass/guitars or occasionally on the vocals. Billy is in fine form in general, his voice carrying the perfect level of atmosphere whether he's barking out his Hetfield-like harsher lines or the hazier, melodic intonation he'll switch into. The leads are pretty well written if not highly memorable. With a lineup of musicians like this, you could very easily fly off the handle with all kinds of excess wank and showmanship, but to their credit, the Skolnick/DiGiorgio/Hoglan trio remains as mercenary and true to the Testament spirit as they've always been. Granted, a little more experimentation here, with or without the need for flashy instrumentation, might have created a more interesting overall, but this one seems to celebrate its own generic sense of momentum, with a lot of stock rhythm guitar parts that seem like they're little more than rearranged from prior albums. Even tunes like "Symptoms" with its cool melodic intro riff seem to labor under some very predictable heavier guitar patterns, like the band is constantly engineering its riffs for full moshability, and you can't fault them for keeping up with the times.

I think for fans seeking out the 'pure' Testament thrash aesthetics in 2020 this one is serviceable, like a Formation of Damnation seasoned by a dozen years of modernization. It sounded quite good blasting out of my car windows on some of my spins of the CD, but I certainly wouldn't mind if the band had the confident to spread its creative wings just a little further and perhaps craft a Titans of Evolution that offers a bit more nuance than just the expected professional musicianship and strong vocal delivery. A standardized riff-set, no real surprises other than a few death grunts and one shift into near-black metal territory during "Curse of Osiris". Decent, but they can do better.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.testamentlegions.com/site/

Autothrall's Best Hard Rock & Metal Albums of 1979

The Top Hard Rock & Metal Albums of 1979

01. Motörhead (UK) - Overkill
02. Blue Öyster Cult (USA) - Mirrors
03. Rainbow (UK) - Down to Earth
04. AC/DC (Australia) - Highway to Hell
05. Nazareth (UK) - No Mean City
06. Motörhead (UK) - Bomber
07. April Wine (Canada) - Harder...Faster
08. Accept (Germany) - Accept
09. Gillan (UK) - Mr. Universe
10. Riot (USA) - Narita
11. Thin Lizzy (Ireland) - Black Rose: A Rock Legend
12. Saxon (UK) - Saxon
13. Van Halen (USA) - Van Halen II
14. Blackfoot (USA) - Strikes
15. Marseille (UK) - Marseille
16. Legend (USA) - Fröm the Fjörds
17. Samson (UK) - Survivors
18. Trust (France) - Trust
19. Scorpions (Germany) - Lovedrive
20. Nokemono (Japan) - The Black World

I was about five years old this year, so my access to heavy metal music was limited,  and I had little context for even classifying it as 'heavy metal'. Still, bands like Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Nazareth, Blue Öyster Cult, Van Halen, KISS, and even Motörhead came into my life pretty early thanks to cousins and quarter-an-LP yard and church sales. This list features a nice cross-section of early NWOBHM, hard rock, and heavier Southern rock from the time, even though quite a few of these bands were ones I'd get into much later. Overkill should be like a Leather Bible for any and all heavy metal fans, so it takes the year with ease, but almost everything here is fun or formidable. I didn't include Priest's Hell Bent for Leather since it was really just a re-release of Killing Machine for North America with a track change.

UPDATED FOR 2020

Spring Break 2020

Spring Break arrives at just the right moment this year. With the kids and wife at home during the self-quarantine that so many Americans are placed in, it's become more challenging to get time to concentrate on writing much of anything. I wish you all well out there, and thank you as always for stopping by to read the reviews. I do plan on updating my own yearly favorite lists, starting at 1980 and going forward; will probably continue that throughout April, and be back for new reviews come May.

Stay safe,

autothrall

Borknagar - The Archaic Course (1998)

Despite its introduction of Simen Hestnæs, I.C.S. Vortex, into the Borknagar lineup, and onto the radars of metal fans the world over, The Archaic Course seemed to arrive and depart without a whole lot of fanfare. It wasn't that it had a particularly negative reaction, but there was a sense of disappointment for some who were likely expecting more of the arguably denser material that comprised The Olden Domain. Although it has just as dynamic a range between its aggressive tendencies and folksy Nordic flow, it is certainly a little more sure of itself and straightforward. But the switch between Garm and Simen's vocals might have been a sore point, or the more rambling and vaulted songwriting, or whatever perplexing reasons that it wasn't better received.

Obviously, I would disagree with any such assessment, because if it's not already painfully clear, this is my favorite Borknagar album. Not by a wide margin, mind you, but this was simply one of those important records that came along in the decade of grunge, nu metal and diminishing returns for a number of subgenres and blew my mind. This is one of those of those 90s albums that expanded my own expectations of what 'metal' music could be, what it could accomplish, and even though they've continued for decades to create beautiful iterations of this style with albums like Empiricism, Winter Thrice and True North, this remains the point where the floodgates opened and a band that had already deluged and impressed me with its earlier works simply drowned me in admiration. That's not to say it doesn't have a few flaws, some rough edges that would be hewn down the road, but I found it positively magnificent back in my 20s and feel no differently in middle age. This thing is a storm of mood and majesty across eight tracks and 38 minutes, and features a number of my fave tracks across the Norwegians' entire history to date.

Now the style here doesn't exactly distance itself far from The Olden Domain, but there was a cleaner and more cosmic feel to how the material was presented and produced. Vibrant if melancholic chord patterns continued to pull from the traditional folk influences just as much as Bathory's Blood Fire Death, and there was a lot more of a direct showcase on the guitars themselves, with percussion often segueing out for some glimmering acoustics or even the winding electric riffs. Kai K. Lie was still performing bass at this point and offers up a cool, subtle, almost psychedelic selection of grooves that lock right together with Brun's poignant riffing. In his final Borknagar performance before a tragic overdose in 1999, Grim lays out a dense level of thunder on the low end of his kit, which only helps to elevate the vocals and guitars out into the firmament, and his fills are great at adding more depth to the constant, swaggering shifts in rhythm. Ivar of Enslaved was still here helping to arrange some of the songs, as well as joining Vortex on the synthesizers, which range from ominous choirs to more slicing, proggy pads that cut through the backdrop of the rhythm instruments' atmosphere. Just because it's a little more direct doesn't make this any less complex than its predecessor, in fact as heavily arranged as their later material would be during the Vintersorg years and before, there was often every bit as much going on throughout this one.

Of course the real star for me is Simen's voice, which even with its lesser level of polish here is still one of the most distinct entities on the whole Norse scene, which contains a whole lot of bands I like that have made constant evolutions beyond their traditional roots. There is obviously a parallel to Garm, but Vortex was simply capable of presenting a wider range, like a yodeler who suddenly got all grim and serious. The snarls here are solid as well, but there was no question after hearing this that the soaring clean vocals were going to remain a central feature going forward. While he occasionally does seem to go off pitch ever so slightly, the way the voice interacts with the busy riffing was just something so new to me back when I first heard this. And having had the good fortune to see them tour on this album with Emperor, the Kings of Terror package, I can attest that it sounded even better in that setting than it did on this recording. But it is utterly mighty either way, especially in tracks like "Ad Nocturm" or "Black Token" where he alternates it with some of the more chaotic and wicked black metal rasping for a duality that doesn't sound the slightest bit forced or cheesy.

It would be hard to choose favorites here, but in addition to those I just mentioned, I'll give a nod to the beautiful, steady "Winter Millennium", "Universal" and the heavily fjord-flowing "Oceans Rise" which was a track that definitely caught on with a lot of folks, even if the album as a whole didn't. But there's not a bad track among these, not one point that I ever feel like skipping a single measure, not even for the arguably anticlimactic synth, voice and storm-sampled outro "Fields of Long Gone Presence", which has this warmth to it among the crackling thunder and shining keys which is worth its very short journey. It's totally awesome, even for the few instances where the vocals or melodies might not be perfectly executed in isolation from the rest of the mix; the flaws, and they're minor at most, only end up endearing me to the whole thing even more (and I'd say the same of Garm's stuff on the first two albums). Ultimately, with its ponderous, nature-tinted lyrics and the rich musical language the band had been developing for itself coming fully into fruition, The Archaic Course is probably one of the most underrated albums I own in my entire collection. I've still got my beat up old cardboard promo slip CD for this one, from my early zine years in the 90s, and it's well past time I upgraded for one with a booklet.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (slide into forever)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Quintessence (2000)

I always got a sense with Quintessence that Borknagar wanted more of a 'sure thing' alongside their Norwegian peers after the somewhat mixed reactions to The Archaic Course, and to an extent this seemed to me possibly a bit of damage control. At the very least it's a curve back towards some of the sounds we were hearing on the first two records, but with more pronounced snarls and orchestration that were comparable to the material being produced through popular acts like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir at the time. Being that this is Borknagar, of course, we're still getting a lot of the eclectic instrumentation and philosophical sheen they were already known for, multiple vocal styles being arranged throughout and lots of dynamic, progressive shifts that can be felt through Brun's note patterns and the heavily embedded synthesizers that ranged from organs over to more ambient and electronica-tinged pads.

After having such a prominent role on the album before it, ICS Vortex seems to be subdued here, at least his cleaner vocal style. It exists throughout the album, but is too often paired up with the rasp vocals which often end up sounding pretty silly. In fact, there are a lot of synth parts or melodies here that give the impression of a carnival or haunted house, not enough that for it to avoid the fjords of the band's foundation, but I occasionally feel like I'm listening to a more intense, hectic Arcturus and not so much Borknagar. There are still some great, charging Viking pieces here like "Ruins of the Future", which has some amazing melodies, especially the interchange between the synths and guitars. They also throw this filter on the snarls which is horrifying if over the top. "Colossus" is another track I enjoyed, one of the closest callbacks to the previous records, with a nice clean vocal presence and some swinging, swaggering mid-pace riffs. "Invincible" sounds like some badass carousel black metal, and the close "Revolt" has a nice contrast between its own circus-like synths simmering off in the background between the charge of the beat and the rasping.

Otherwise, I think there are a few misfire tracks with some interesting tectonic rhythmic structures that simply don't manifest riffs of high enough quality for them to stand out. The instrumental ditties are a mixed bag, with the prog-goth organ & drum driven "Inner Landscape" sounding like it belongs on La Masquerade Infernale, and "Embers" giving off a "Planet Caravan" like vibe as it leads into the last track. The mix on the album is pretty solid, but I think perhaps some places there are certain instruments or vocals that should have been emphasized or dialed back. This was Lars Nedland's first album with the band, and I think they also overused his keys, just a fraction. I'm a HUGE fan of his, don't mistake me, in both this band and his mainstay Solefald; there are plenty of moments where he shines even here, but the album does come off a bit overcrowded or messy in certain spots. Ultimately, Quintessence is my least favorite of Borknagar's studio efforts apart from the acoustic Origin, but it's still pretty good. There's an EP worth of fantastic material here, and nothing else is necessarily bad, it just doesn't resonate with me as much as the first three albums or many that have arrived later on.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (swept toward a new domain)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - True North (2019)

True North is arguably the most 'friendly' or accessible album in the entire Borknagar line to date, and I don't mean that as any sort of criticism, because it's fantastic nonetheless. Memorable, melodic melodrama for all of us would-be woodsman and Viking-alikes the globe over, captured with expert songwriting and performances all around giving well over 100%. It's also one of those albums well into a band's career which seemed to vault a number of fans back up on the bandwagon; at least in my circle of acquaintances, I had to remind numerous friends that Borknagar had already put out two excellent albums leading up to it in Urd and Winter Thrice. But for whatever reason it seems they're finally being appreciated as the Scandinavian savants some of us always held them up to be, and that is absolutely fine. But there's probably also a slice of the audience that finds a bittersweetness to this one...

The Vintersorg years are over. Hedlund had an amicable parting with the band and bounced back over to his eponymous mainstay to produce a (worthy) sequel to his debut Till fjälls decades before, and his absence can certainly be felt here. Not through a dive in quality, but just in how True North does not attempt to come across as busy as some of its predecessors. You don't have the massive vocal arrangements they all pulled off together on the albums running up to this...still some duets, but in general the vocal patterns are more straightforward. Fortunately, they're also AMAZING, with ICS Vortex giving one of the best performances of his entire career, both his epic cleans and his harshes. There was also some new blood in the fold here, with drummer Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow, the third in three albums, and guitarist Jostein Thomassen, aka Pendragon, who had played with Rønnow before, as well as a little late 90s/early 00s black metal outfit you might have encountered called Source of Tide. Both of them fit into Borknagar so well that you'd have thought they were already playing with them for a good decade or so already, and in fact the drumming is quite potent, which gives a lot of life to such a dynamic effort which to my ears sounds like the most modern thing they've ever done from a pure production standpoint.

Now, I'm not going to lie, True North is a bit heavily front-loaded, but damn are these first 4-5 cuts epics that match almost anything the band had produced before. "Thunderous" is quite an accurate description of itself, a powerhouse that isn't without its own acoustic, emotional self-balancing sequences that include some very tasty guest violins. "Up North" might be the most presentable use yet of Vortex's yodeling, melodic cleans, so damn catchy that one weekend when my wife and I were driving the kids through the White Mountains to Santa's Village in New Hampshire, I had all of them trying to yodel along to that part. And they're a bunch of squares! To them, Loki is just a Marvel action figure they have lying in a toy bin with so many others. "The Fire That Burns" is another mighty tune, a more mid-paced joint that makes you feel like you're watching your landscape transform into the Nine Worlds in slow motion, vocally impressive with some great little proggy bits and acoustics. "Wild Father's Hearts" stands out for being a better Borknagar ballad than almost anything you'll find on Origin, some powerful choruses, and when the electric guitars arrive they are brilliant.

After that point, the album shifts down to just regular old 'greatness' and some of the brilliance might subside, if not the magnificence. Tracks like "Into the White" and "Tidal" have some wonderful moments, but they also have a few riffs in there that don't quite stick the landing as well as others, or might feel a little redundant with other Borknagar tracks here or in the past; for instance I heard some callbacks to The Olden Domain in the latter. Nothing wrong with that, but that initial rush in which I couldn't believe what I was hearing faded away and I was left with just a pleasant listen to material which is still far better than most anything else I'd listen to in any genre in 2019. So, not much of a downer and not only a few points get shaved as a result. Altogether, True North just exemplifies the resilience and continual growth of the group, even with these lineup changes they pull together one of their strongest albums, and in fact after listening to this one for the last six months and change I'm happy to say it's my second favorite in their whole catalog, just marginally nudging out its bad ass predecessor.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (where the air is clear)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Winter Thrice (2016)

Some people love the Three Tenors, some love their G3 guitar god tours, but I've got my Winter Thrice, an album that teams up all three of Borknagar's 'lead' singers to great success, thanks to some real teamwork and excellent songwriting. Now I admit, I've already made a bit of an exaggeration since 'Fiery G.' only appears on a couple of the tunes, but let's just combine his presence with Lars Nedland's added vocals and count them as one person. What's even more, like Urd before it, Winter Thrice feels like the band had a new lease on its existence, the compositions here are compelling, fresh, and apart from their stylistic parallels, didn't feel like any sort of senseless or lazy rehash of anything that had come before. A lot of that is the vocal interplay between Vintersorg and ICS Vortex, which was already well managed on the previous album, but seems to have matured here with a better balance between all the snarling black metal vocals, chants, choirs and Vortex' clean, almost yodel-like presence which had long been one of their most distinct characteristics.

But for all that, they also manage to squeeze in 'Fiery G.', Kristoffer 'Garm' Rygg back into the fold with the amazing title track and "Terminus", later on in the playlist. For a band that already had so much going on, so many weapons to skewer you with, this is just added detail that makes them so consistently engaging. You could very easily fuck up something like this with too many cooks in the kitchen and make the album sound like a crowded mess, but Brun is such a great writer that the album never suffers from any sort of excess, the structure of every moment is divine. I've already mentioned the title track which was instantly catapulted into my top handful of Borknagar tracks, not only for the trio of singers but also because of those Viking-like swaggering riffs colliding into the proggier parts with the amazingly memorable clean vocals. I hear this song every time I dream, from the melodies to the grounded brickwork laid out by Baard Kolstad, on loan from Leprous, who does a killer job here taking over for David Kincade, even if just for this one studio effort. Other highlights include "Cold Runs the River" with its desperate, surging rhythm and swells of heavenly orchestration, or "The Rhyme of the Mountain", one of their best career openers, or the nerding out of the proggy "Panorama", or the mellow but no-less-potent "Noctilucent".

I wouldn't say the album is entirely perfect, for all the masterful tunes here there are certainly a few moments where the music doesn't catch the ear quite so spiritually. Granted, this is a matter of measures or riffs, never whole tunes, and there is no sub-par material whatsoever that I feel like skipping, but I didn't think the album was incessantly genius, mostly just Urd-level with a few tracks going above and beyond anything on that one. Production is very polished and even, whether they're storming off into a blast beat with Vintersorg's rasp leading the way, an acoustic segue, or a more choppy progressive bit, and the lyrics are some of their finest, conjuring up these cyclopean and sweeping images of nature and philosophical whimsy. I can recall listening the fuck out of this thing when it first showed up early in 2016, and then for several late Autumns since then it provided me with an awesome soundtrack to some of my landscaping, whether it was bagging leaves or clearing snow. Just one of that albums that sounds even better outside than it does when you're experience it in a closed off environment. Expansive, mesmerizing and proof there was still a LOT of life left in this almost infallible Norwegian act. Tied with The Olden Domain for my third favorite Borknagar.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (raving forces of the inevitable)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Urd (2012)

The reintroduction of ICS Vortex into the Borknagar lineup was a truly momentous occasion; although I can understand the draw towards playing in a major act like Dimmu Borgir, and they made what they could of their time with him, I always felt like he was underused. Considering that I enjoyed The Archaic Course more than anything that other group ever released, you could understand my palpable disappointment, and it was so great for him to return to where he rightly belonged, and to instantly play such a major role again shows a lot of class on the part of Vintersorg in particular. Not to marginalize his own presence on this album, because the two actually work wonders together, and Hedlund still contributes most of the harsh vocals and a lot of the cleans, while Lars Nedland also serves as a third vocalist in addition to his keyboard duties.

In fact, Urd is almost like a warm up to the greatness that would follow it in 2016, but in of itself it is quite an excellent album that felt considerably fresher than Universal or Epic before it. While the baseline mash of progressive, folk and Viking black metal aesthetics remained fully intact, there were a number of riffs and arrangements throughout the entire record that felt unique to me. The album doesn't seem to lean as much on the organs or synthesizers as prior outings; although they're still woven in rather well, this record heavily favors the guitars and vocals, and arguably might be the most black metal infused offering the band had released since Quintessence. Not to the exclusion of the other styles, for there are flowing, orchestrated acoustics on the calming of "The Plains of Memories", or majestic melodic folk metal on "Frostrite", it's still a heavily dynamic, diverse effort. But it does feel like you're getting a lot more floods of tremolo picked guitars, David Kinkade laying out a ton of meticulous blast beats, and the way it opens with "Epochalypse" just goes for the throat immediately with some intensity while showcasing this new multi-vocal attack and some a few really sweet riffing progressions.

Whole album is a beast, in particular the vocals, which are fairly even distributed between Vortex' cutting, higher pitch which had matured by this point over his earlier years with the band, the rasps and mid-range cleans of Vintersorg which had also improved, and Nedland's additional lines. Once in awhile they'll have this choir-like track just hovering off in the mix which sounds amazing to the point where I wish it was used even more...there is always something happening here and I'd have to brand it as one of the finer vocal albums over their whole career, trumped only by its own followup. The mix of the album is clear, but textured and powerful, like a lot of their material I feel like they just have so much more weaponry than other bands in their field, and none of it drags behind any of the other instrumentation. Combined with the great lyrics, the packaging, and the overall vision this is one of the band's top albums, although really, there are so many to choose from...my opinion of this one has even INCREASED over the last eight years since I picked it up, but it's clearly a shower just as much as a grower, more evidence that this is just one of the best bands around.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (Where the rivers recoil and return)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Universal (2010)

The sole Borknagar album not to appear on Century Media Records, they kept it in the family by putting this one out through the esteemed Indie Recordings, a label that has long served as both a harbor for veteran Norwegian bands and upcoming progressive acts in the black metal realm and beyond. But don't take this as any sign of mutation or perceived artistic freedom, Universal is does not far from the tree of its predecessors, to the point that I often get it confused with its 'heavy' predecessor Epic, ignoring the acoustic album that fell between them. Well into the Vintersorg era of the band, it doesn't distinguish itself much from albums before it, but just offers another marginal round of refinements and the same level of intricate, competent craftsmanship that had defined them.

Universal does suffer somewhat from redundancy, for as much work as they obviously put into their material, a number of the tracks present here flow into one another and previously released tunes to the point that they can be a little difficult to pick apart. There's still a strong backbone of melodic black metal, but constantly being complemented with acoustic segues, Hammond organs, synths and pianos so that there's rarely a moment of raw riff that isn't accompanied. The 'Viking' sound here is quite prevalent through Brun's chord constructions and that interplay of electrics and acoustics that feels like you're drifting along the winds and waters of some far North idyll, interwoven with the substantial vocal arrangements of Vintersorg and Lars Nedland, between raving rasps and some slick male choirs which help elevate it that much more above the mundane. The proggy keyboards are legion, and Borknagar had long since become one of the bands outside Finland's Amorphis to best incorporate them without coming off as overly atmospheric hacks.

Sprinkle on some bluesy, Pink Floyd-style lead guitars and you've got yourself another rich, detailed album you can adventure through numerous times with plenty of new patterns forming. The new drummer at the time, American David Kinkade added quite a lot to the aural canvas with his beats that effortlessly bounced between intensity and calmer rock grooves and fills, and there were a few moments where Tyr's bass playing also got pretty perky. For me this album really picks up with the trilogy of tracks "For a Thousand Years to Come", "Abrasion Tide" and "Fleshflower" which are the most exciting and interesting of the lot, some excellent vocal lines, jarring proggy guitars and boiling organs and other synthesizer lines frenzying out to kick some life into the occasionally bland tunes that came before them. And for a wonderful surprise you get a guest spot from none other than former (and future) vocalist I.C.S. Vortex on "My Domain" which is a great way to close this out and perhaps offer a little foreshadowing.

The digipak version I own comes with a bonus "Making of" DVD which is pretty typical of such things, and not all that interesting to where it offers me much more value. You get a good glimpse of their process and their wintry environments where the album is being recorded, but I'd have loved more of an intimate thing where someone could pick their brains a little more, maybe see them out about town in the midst of the hole thing. Unless you want to sit there watching guys record their instruments individually for songs that you know far better and like better on the whole, it's kind of a dud and not even shot particularly well, but then again it's not like they HAD to include it, they wanted to kick a little something extra to the audience and so be it. Not a mar upon an album that, while far from their best, still has plenty to recommend about it and for me trumps both Origin and Epic before it.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://borknagar.com/