Sólstafir is an Icelandic band whose fourth album — a double CD — will be released by Season of Mist on October 14. Andy Synn has made passing reference to them in a positive way in a few of his NCS reviews of other bands’ music, but until this morning I’d never heard what they have to offer. But we now have the promo of the new album, Svartir Sandar, and at the same time I discovered that the Finnish web site Inferno began streaming the album in full today (and for one week hereafter).
So, while doing something else I went to Inferno and began streaming the music. The first song on the stream is called “Ljós í Stormi”. It’s more than 11 minutes long. It stopped me dead in my tracks, almost immediately. I ceased what I was doing and just drank in the riveting music. I suppose one could call it post-black-metal, for lack of a better short-hand, but that seems so vague and, frankly, kind of dull — and the music is anything but dull.
After an almost two-minute instrumental intro that’s slow, cold, and hypnotic, the song explodes in rush of crashing chords and convulsive rhythms, supercharged by Aðalbjörn Tryggvason’s vein-bursting vocals. The pacing eases back, with echoing guitars introducing a dark, melancholy melody, accented by strange pieces of electronica, and those slow passages trade off with a distorted rolling gait. It’s both icy and fiery, otherworldly and passionate, as much prog-rock as metal, and worth your time.
GO HERE to stream this album on Inferno, and if I can’t persuade you to do that, at least go past the jump and check out “Ljós í Stormi”. We’ll have a review of this album in the future.
[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/01-Ljos-i-Stormi.mp3|titles=Solstafir – Ljos i Stormi]22 Responses to “SOLSTAFIR STREAMING”
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Holy shit. No words. Instant buy. Thank you.
Go buy “Kold” too.
And “Masterpiece Of Bitterness”.
Hurry, before it’s too late!
This is going to be SUCH a massive undertaking to review properly. There’s just so much of it. And it’s all so awesome.
Reminds me of Primordial. Liking it!
I’m laughing at the Google Translation of the page!
“Indoor swimming pool found on the bottom of the sound from their album is drier than its predecessor”
“It would be wrong to say that the experimental in tracks mammoths to grow unnoticed”
and what the fuck does “tunnelmametallivaikutteistaan” mean?
Loving the album! Definitely a must buy!
Awesome! We have new competitors for “fucking good pancake”! The first one is now up as the new NCS sub-header.
I wanna see a mammoth grow unnoticed. What would it be like? Undetected cancer???
But if you see it grow unnoticed, then it wouldn’t be unnoticed. To see it grow unnoticed, you’d have to not see it.
Damnit. That’s true…ummm…
Maybe we can watch a video replay???
Only the Finnish language, as expertly rendered into authentic frontier gibberish by Google Translate, can adequately capture this paradox. Because it is unnoticed, we cannot even know that there is a mastodon, or that it is growing. One can only acknowledge the unknowable mystery of life and say, “tunnelmametallivaikutteistaan.”
Fuck. It’s like…so….philosophical. And deep.
(Offer me a joint, and I’ll be your first lay at college!)
You are an easy lay. How come I never met anyone like you in college?
I dunno……..
Actually, I didn’t either. But that’s what all the movies told me!
‘tunnelmametallivaikutteistaan’ means ‘from its atmospheric metal influences’…Now if you think using google translator on this context is funny, imagine nhl.com using it. Now that’s fucked up.
By the way, this song whilst sipping your morning coffee, after a bacon ‘n eggs breakfast, on your day-off is pure harmony!
I was hoping you’d help us out with something like an actual translation. Do you know how to grow a mastodon unnoticed?
Why of course. But if i’d tell you i’d have to first stuff you with mämmi like a turkey on thanksgiving day and then slowly human barbeque you in a sauna whilst getting spanked by vihta dual-wielding Santa Claus.
Dang it. Now I’ve got to go back to Google Translate and see what you just said. The translation will probably open an interdimensional wormhole and suck me into the void.
Such…muddy music. The crazy Google translation was, actually, spot on.
It reminds me of a more melancholy, less drunk-as-fuck Murder City Devils. Almost like someone took Dance Macabre by The Faint and Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts and then hit it with a plasma rifle blast.
So…gloomy.
Are we on a doom and gloom kick here today????? I’m not complaining, just wondering. I love me some doom and gloom.
Doom and gloom kick? Well, maybe subconsciously. I did have Insomnium in mind when I started listening to Solstafir. And then, serendipitously, I listened to this (about which, more tomorrow):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFaOskC_u1U
“Doom black metal”……
It’s like falling into a pit of black with obsidian walls of a shadowy dark hue of darkened darkness with a side of blue black 124.
You just saved me a bunch of time on tomorrow’s post!
Hah! I feel special.