If you enjoy black metal with a more melodic approach, you may enjoy this. Borknagar use pretty standard thrash style guitars, laced with keyboard/syth music, and fast rhythmic drumming. On this album the band seem to wind in and out from sudden bursts of chaotic noise to dark melodies. Borknagar do not stay on one musical path, you don’t know what to expect on the next song or even the next chorus. You can here the “old-school” influences but they have an original take on black metal. The album goes in all directions! One problem with the album I found was that the vocals strayed to almost ridiculous at some points (gremilin black metal/whiny six year old), but they have superb vocals through out most of the album. The band does not stick to one vocal style, there are clean vocals, black metal vocals, and average heavy metal vocals. The lyrics are excellent and poetic, the music is complex and varied. My favorite songs are “Colossus,” and “Revolt.” I’d say that if you are into Agathodaimon, Dimmu Borgir, or maybe Gorgoroth, or even some who are into melodic death metal would probably want to check this CD out!
