Naglfar
The Harvest
Century Media
I've been a miner for a heart of METAL!
You’ve got to admire Naglfar’s efficiency. When original lead vocalist Jens Rydén left the Swedish black metallers a couple years ago, founding member Kristoffer Olivius put down his bass and assumed the role of frontman, and on 2005’s excellent Pariah, the band didn’t lose a step. As if their grim rivals in Norway didn’t have enough reasons to complain about their Scandinavian neighbors; here was a band pulling off melodic black metal as well as anybody—furious blast beat-driven, tremolo-pickin’ tunes offset beautifully by sneaky harmonies and introspective, melodic breakdowns, all concisely packaged in a neat and tidy 39-minute disc. So competent and consumer-friendly are Naglfar that we half expect an Allen wrench to fall out whenever we tear open their new CDs.
In fact, their fifth album just might rival the band’s much-loved 2003 release Sheol. Naglfar have always displayed a tremendous knack for dynamic extreme metal songwriting, always mindful enough not to overdo the blasting, tossing in melodic departures and tempo changes to keep things fresh, but they sound in full command of their craft on Harvest, which is aided tremendously by some muscular production. All the usual trappings that we love ’em for are there (the spirited “Feeding Moloch” is an instant fan-pleaser), but mid-tempo grooves tend to be the order of the day, as “The Mirrors of My Soul,” “The Darkest Road” and the epic title track follow the lead of Enslaved, and cruise along mightily, never compromising an ounce of power along the way. —Adrien Begrand
