Artist: Evig Natt
Title: Darkland
Type: Album
Label: Black Bards Entertainment

Well I knew very little about Evig Natt, with the exception that the band features ex members of Enslaved and Einherjer. In actual fact, Evig Natt are made up of only two full time members including Kirsten Jørgensen on vocals and Einherjer bassist Stein Roger Sund who handles bass, keyboards and vocals, the rest being session musicians. This band joins a very long line of gothic metal bands to make use of female vocals in recent times, albeit balanced out with more deathly male vocals and it’s hard to ignore the fact that it really is getting harder and harder to distinguish between these bands. I will usually give the benefit of the doubt and listen with an open mind as I am a fan of female vocalists in general and where female fronted metal is concerned it is great when it is done well. So, is this the case with Evig Natt?

Truthfully, I have mixed opinions. There are times throughout these 60 minutes when I genuinely want to like this album. I mean, it starts off quite well with some triggered drums and a keyboard line that sees them poised for battle, before an oppressive riff comes in and crushes everything along with the gravid growls of Stein Roger Sund which are rather tasty. Certainly there is a gothic-doom influence to their sound that, here and there, is reminiscent of Anathema or Paradise Lost, perhaps even Swallow The Sun, and this is especially true of ‘The Wanderer’ which I consider to be the strongest track on the album. This trudges along at a sluggish pace while the melancholic keyboards that seem to drift beneath the music are a lovely touch.

The vocals of Kirsten Jorgensen are really bright and breezy and have a pleasant tone to them. On ‘Evig Natt’ they are laced with particular intrigue and there’s a folksiness to this one that I do rather like, while on ‘Darkland’ they counteract the deathly growls nicely. ‘I Die Again’ is the token ballad and just a bit too sentimental for my liking though thankfully bounced back with ‘Sjelelaus’ which shows off some harsh, blackened guitars and a wall of drums that soon disperses in favour of the vocals. This is my gripe with too many of the less interesting female fronted bands; just as the music gets interesting it all seems to fall into the ether and in place is a bland, wishy-washy background melody for the lovely lady to show off her pipes over. As much as I do like the vocals, the music should be equally important. On the whole, this isn’t a bad album, but it’s far from great. Evig Natt certainly have potential but they just aren’t quite there yet. Given a couple of years or so and I’ll be intrigued to see how they progress.

http://www.myspace.com/evignattband
http://www.evignatt.com/

Luci Herbert

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