Artist: Nattsol
Title: Stemning
Type: Album
Label: Lupus Lounge/Prophecy Productions
Nattsol, the Norwegian Black metal act, first formed in 2006 by acoustic and bass guitarist Erlend Antonsen. The bands view was to concentrate on themes of nature and mysticism and to further explore it. Members of Nattsol come from different parts of Norway and some far apart, but this is due to finding the perfect band members, no matter the distance. In 2008 the first full length album ‘Stemning’ had finally been recorded, but at only 6 tracks long.
Firing into the first track ‘Ved Aas I Haustmoerket’ it’s clear that this is a top notch if short album. It whips in with a steady traditional black metal drum roll pattern with some eerie and haunting harmonic vocals, followed by your typical growls that you’d expect. But the screams and howls are well worth a mention here; scary stuff! The middle section is impressive with a little acoustic piece, then blasts back into the screams and fast drumming. ‘Ved Bal I Kveldstime’ has quite a passionate classical guitar piece then shocks you into oblivion with some immense drumming, vocals and backing vocals. Quite impressive! The extra group vocals in this track add a ghostly atmospheric feeling. I was instantly tapping along and loving the riffs to ‘Ved Skog I Natterstid’ it reminded me of ‘I’s Battalions’’. The vocals were also similar on this track. Another track which impressed me was ‘Ved Elv I Eismal Stund’. The rough and dirty guitar work adds to the extremeness of the whole album, but shows more on this particular track which is slower than the other 5, but nevertheless it’s equally as good.
On a whole, this album is truly amazing! It ticks all the boxes for ‘proper’ Black Metal fans. Romantic, Extreme, Aggressive, Brutal, and in your face! The production work is superb and with its added clean vocals it shows a little diversity. Unfortunately as stated on their MySpace page, they have no plans to start touring due to the fact that they live in different parts of Norway and cannot get together enough to rehearse. But here’s hoping that will all change.
http://www.prophecy.cd/
