With some bands, you can tell what they’re about pretty quickly. With Swedish newcomers Kvaen, you only need a few seconds to realize what they’re about: muscular melodic black metal. The work of musician Jakob Björnfot, Kvaen harkens back to the sound of blue-cover black metal from the ’90s, with an added touch of modern viking and pagan metal flair. Indeed, Jakob shows a great amount of skill in weaving the different parts together to create memorable and enjoyable feasts of aggression and melody.
For those of you devoted to the power of the unholy riff, Decibel is happy to debut a new song called “Septem Peccata Mortalia.” Here’s how the band describes the song:
“Septem Peccata Mortalia” is one of those songs with many different influences. The verse is hard-hitting, like a hammer. I was very satisfied with the guitar solo on this one, I wanted to pay a tribute to Andy LaRocque from King Diamond, one of my favorite guitar players of all time and I decided to put a nice break in the style of Metallica’s “Dyers Eve” in there as well. I was a bit skeptical at first about this song but when I heard the final mix, I knew that it was a hit.”
Kvaen’s album The Funeral Pyre, comes out on February 28 via Black Lion Records. The album features a variety of guest musicians from bands like Necrophobic and Nominon. Sometimes you can feel assured just from the company a musician keeps!
