(Our Norway-based contributor Chile returns to NCS with the following review of a just-released album by the Norwegian black metal band Nattverd.)
The change of seasons is upon us, that much is true. Mind’s undying love of wintry landscapes and frozen vistas will be put on hold for the next seven or eight months, while the physical form will be thankful for not needing the concentration and dexterity of an Olympic ice-skater just to get to the local shop so it could diverge resources on other needful things in the body. Also affected by this change are numerous black metal bands across Scandinavia famous for preferring to take their promo pictures in frozen, snowy environments. Soon enough, winter is, well, coming.
Until then, we work with what we have. And what we have is plenty of new metal from Scandinavia coming to these shores in their longboats wielding sharp riffs in our general direction. One such example is the outstanding Norwegian black metal band Nattverd whose releases so far may have passed under the radar of a wider audience, but their new album Tidloes naadesloes should be the one to take them further up the ladder of chaos.
Released on March 21st by Soulseller Records, a Dutch record company which has a stupendous number of Norwegian metal bands in its roster (but that’s not important right now), it is also a timely reminder of the continuing strength of the Norwegian metal scene.
This is already the band’s fifth album in eight years since the debut Vi vet gud er en løgner from 2017, although the band itself has a longer history, being formed in 2010 or so. Consisting of scene veterans and fronted by Ormr aka Doedsadmiral of Nordjevel and Doedsvangr, the band surely doesn’t lack any pedigree in the scene and it shows in every minute of this album. It’s a show of force, if there ever was one.
Straight out of the opened frozen gate, “Iskalde horn” comes at us at full speed, setting the pace and intensity for the whole album. Writhing guitars and thick production bring the best out of these songs, but their true power lies in the band’s masterful sense of composition. Speed and viciousness are naturally the main characteristics of this album and the genre itself, but knowing also when to slow down and add small details to accentuate the dramatic change is where Nattverd excels.
This is most visible in songs like “Doedsfugel” which has a slow, uplifting tempo with the appearance of the music box phrase that ramps up the creepiness factor already present (and additionally augmented by guest vocals of Von Hellreich of Slagmaur) or the absolute banger of “Raatte og raatt”, which rolls like a plague of rot across the land, and then finally after the three-minute mark turns into a monster frenzy pummeling the listener ferociously with everything the band has to offer (with a little help from Taake’s Hoest on vocals, one of three of his guest spots on the album).
Elsewhere, the band goes from strength to strength, fast to faster, for what would a black metal album be without some destroyers of worlds incorporated in four-minute songs. Almost as a premonition, “For aa kunne bli doedt” does not hold back, uncompromisingly wanting to destroy the very notion of this world, but the ultimate prize has to go to “Med knieven i oeyet”, a wonderfully blasting track that literally puts a knife to our face peeling the skin off by the sheer power of the riff. Alternating the classic black metal tremolo phrases with a crushing thrash metal sensibility makes this song a sure candidate for our yearly Most Infectious Songs list come next January.
“De sviande ord vaagar ikje for sitt liv” is also one of the highlights of the album, wonderfully balancing the melodic and the fierce sides of the band’s sound and managing to even incorporate some acoustic parts for good measure. A great addition to the album is also the cover of Dødheimsgard’s classic “Naar vi dolker guds hjerte” from Kronet til konge (where again Hoest lends his vocals to the song), which serves both as a tribute to an outstanding band and an update of sorts filtered through the prism of modern production values.
In the end, not everything needs to be about reinventing the axe. For the most part, it is only needed to be able to capture the essence of the axe and sharpen it just a little bit more, if possible. Nattverd does just so with Tidloes naadesloes bringing some high-quality black metal to this world, bludgeoning us with that axe and a sure hand. Stylistically close to their fellow countrymen in Taake and Djevel (with the untimely passing of their frontman Trånn Ciekals still weighing down on our souls), Nattverd possesses a distinct character of their own and we hope this album finally makes them a household name in a genre already brimming with quality releases this year.
Tidloes naadesloes is out now on Soulseller Records in all available formats.
https://www.facebook.com/nattverdofficial/
https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tidloes-naadesloes
https://www.soulsellerrecords.com/