AN NCS PREMIERE: RIMFROST — “SAGA NORTH”

The Swedish black metal band Rimfrost began life in the summer of 2002 as the vehicle for the creative inspirations of two 14-year-olds, singer/guitarist Hravn and drummer Hravn. In the years since then, the band have seen their fair share of ups and downs, but the original duo have remained together, and now, having been joined by bassist B.C., they are on the verge of releasing their third album through Non Serviam Records.

This self-titled work comes more than six years after the release of their second album on Season of Mist, Veraldar Nagli. Those six years have brought the band increased maturity not only as songwriters and performers, but also as observers of life and combatants in its conflicts. The experience shows in the new music, and today we give you a sample of it through our premiere of a song from the new album named “Saga North“.

The song rises as an ice-covered obsidian monolith of sound, mid-paced, bleak and massive, with a dissonant melody, drumbeats that explode like gunshots, and Hravn‘s caustic howls serving as a herald of the ferocity to come — and it does come soon. But although the band soon erupt in a galloping charge that fires the nerve endings, more twists and turns lie ahead, with melodic refrains that alternately swarm, writhe, and glide like a sweeping cascade of northern lights.

At the end, the gripping, unearthly melody that began the song surfaces again, this time joined by a martial drumbeat that seems to signal defiance and impending war.

“Saga North” is well-named — a stirring example of melodic black metal that does indeed have the air of a soundtrack to a northern saga, a passionate tale of fire and ice that catches you up in its unfolding.

Rimfrost will be released by Non Serviam on March 18, 2016. Also included below, you will find another song from the album that debuted last month, “Beyond the Mountains of Rime”.

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