This is the debut full length album from these frosty Norwegians, and boy is it kicking my arse. Byfrost play a tasty brand of thrashing black metal, with some unexpected touches of black n roll here and there (don't worry, there's really nothing as horrific as that actually sounds on the album).
The main influence here is clearly modern day Immortal, with everything but the infamous guitar tone and trademark blackened croak followed to a tee (and even then, they come pretty damn close to matching Abbath's vocal style). It'd be pretty harsh to call these guys clones, as they definitely have their own edge on things, but there are still a lot of similarities in riff work and song arrangement (the constant singing about frosty mountains doesn't help differentiate the two bands either!). For me, there's near perfect balance between eerie atmospheric black metal and kicking out the jams with some really rocking riffage. This really captured my imagination these guys aren't afraid of following any unwritten laws when it comes to putting an album of black metal together, and it's worked in their favour.
Tracks such as 'Lords of Victorious' really have a great feel to them as cliched as it is to say so, you seriously can't sit still whilst listening to this album. If you're not wrecking your neck to the likes of 'Horns to the Sky', you're throwing the horns to the title track. Yes, it's that good.
So, in summary if you're an Immortal fan, or even a fan of bands who embrace extremity as well as allowing themselves to merge chunks of Motorhead into their mix, this album should be engraving itself into the top of your 'wants' list pronto. An excellent album, from a band who look to be going places (Lemmy in corpsepaint not included).
http://www.myspace.com/byfrostmetal
