Every so often a band from Iceland seems to pop up on my radar and I always seem to find them interesting. Sólstafir whose name translates as radiating sun beams are no exception to that rule. Apparently they used to play Viking black metal and have had various demos, EP’s and a couple of albums out but have been silent since 2005 and their ‘Masterpiece Of Bitterness’ album also on Spinefarm. Interestingly enough it was apparently through the group’s use of filesharing that they got noticed by labels in the first place and no doubt got exposure for their music from a country that is somewhat out of the way.
I expected Köld (and you really don’t need that one translating) to take me a long time and a lot of plays to get to grips with and as it is 70 minutes long thought I would be in for the long haul with it. However despite the length, the music here is very easy to get to grips with. Sólstafir now play glacial (and that really is the best descriptor) post rock and although not metal per-se it does easily fit in with our sort of modus-operandi. Opener ’78 Days In The Desert’ is almost a band who live in the ice and snow playing desert rock! This fairly lengthy instrumental warms us up nicely but I cannot help but notice that melody wise Fields Of The Nephilim classic ‘Moonchild’ is very much lurking in the melody here, especially in the powerful bass lines. Once I have this thought in my head it’s pretty much impossible to shake too (especially when I notice that the group list Sisters Of Mercy, The Cult and The Mission) on their MySpace page.
The title track sees layers of sound building up like walls of ice before slowing to a maudlin sparseness and introducing the vocals of Aðalbjörn Tryggvason for the first time. There is a certain wretched Indie sort of feel to them but rather than whining like say matey boy from Muse (nope cannot be bothered to look up his name) he is more likely to emit pathos by bellowing like a wounded polar bear. Whether you could call him a good singer is open to debate due to the more yelled out style but it does actually work here. By the time we swirl into ‘Pale Rider’ we are confronted with a sound akin to the Cure at their gloomiest burgeoned on by the sound of Robert Smith like vocals if he were wailing away having lost every single person he cared about in the world. You could perhaps also cite everything from the likes of Joy Division through to Isis and that whole post rock clique here as this windswept and barren void is whipped into a storm that comes at you like a nasty alien life form chasing Kurt Russell across the snow.
‘She Destroys Again’ is what I have been referring to as the U2 number and I do not mean that in a bad way its like ‘New Years Day’ for an instant before being obliterated by a bomb, all is definitely not quiet here. Again there is that Nephilim jangling gunslinger guitar refrain peppering things here and I think this and due to all the other influences I can hear within the music is what makes it work for me. ‘Necrologue’ is not one that I like. It sounds like the misery that went through Kurt Cobian’s head before it was obliterated by a bullet and a bit too whiny for my tastes.
The album does really hit the doldrums a bit with this last track and following pointless acoustic meandering number striking as surplus to requirements, especially bearing in mind the overall length of this. Funnily enough the last number ‘Goddess Of The Ages’ is a bit odd too, the shoegaze element as it starts draws you in but then you are struck but lyrics and melody that sound like a mix between The Beatles and Neil Young’s ‘Like A Hurricane.’ It’s not quite either but again that conscious thought is with me for the rest of this 11 minute number.
Although ‘Köld’ struck as a particularly interesting album for review purposes and dissecting as such, I cannot see myself going back to it that much in the future, mainly due to the length and the sometimes off-putting Indie vibe and whiny vocals on tracks such as this last one. Still whilst I remain somewhat on the fence with splinters up my bum they obviously are an odd addition to the metal fraternity as they are playing Party Sans Open Air this year. You can check them out at
http://www.myspace.com/solstafir
http://www.spinefarm.fi
