Artist: Byfrost
Title: Of Death
Type: Album
Label: AFM records

I know it's dim of me why its never occurred to me before, but Immortal and their brand of Winter Metal must cast some pretty long shadows, particularly for some of their countrymen. Somehow then, this label début from Norwegian band Byfrost caught me on the hop. If you just slapped on the first song, 'May The Dead Rise' you wouldn't see it; its one of those songs that sounds like an over long intro, Death Metal kick drums all over the first half of it. But by the time we get to 'Eye For An Eye' we are firmly in Immortal territory: It is first cousin to one of their thrashers with a Demonaz/I style melodic hook of a chorus to die for. When they drop into the slow, brooding riff of Buried Alive it’s 'We're the Tyrants' swagger just, alas, not quite as cold and compelling.

When Byfrost slow down the shadow of Immortal always seems to possess them. Heavyharms' vocals are very much in the Abbath mould which helps the link but this in itself is not a bad thing as those two tracks are good, memorable head-nodders and tightly performed. The vocals do get stretched into a broader rage, a rasping roar worthy of Destroyer 666 at times but the really good news though is that the more they thrash it up the more their own personality asserts itself. 'Of Death' has a bouncy, almost backwards sounding riff, a low rumbling thrash that grabs you by the shoulders and drags you out from under that shadow and the skullcrackingly good 'Full Force Rage' is an immensely catchy, aggressive little blackthrash bastard with a great breakdown to crank things up and some classic lead work dancing over the top like dagger blades.

The weird track herein, though, is 'Sorgh'. This is a ponderous, dark few minutes. A couple of simple chords repeated over a sombre keyboard wash. No drums, vocals that are distorted, spoken tones with a barely whispered backing voices. It goes nowhere, does little but is hugely effective and quite a superb mood piece before the rousing thunder and thrash of closer 'All Gods Are Gone'. Byfrost have not escaped the shadow of the mighty Blashyrk Tyrants yet, but with the strong songwriting on show here they may yet thrash and think their way out of it. Well worth checking out.

http://www.myspace.com/byfrostmetal

Gizmo

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