Tuesday, January 18, 2011

HELRUNAR - Sol CD review


HELRUNAR - Sol CD
Lupus Lounge
Genre: Black Metal
Rating: 3/5

After being relatively silent for three years this German black metal band breaks their silence by releasing a two disc effort. I first learned of them back in 2007 with their second full length Baldr ok Iss. They use to have a strong pagan folk influence but obviously things have changed. So now after all this time they have been hold up writing enough material, 90 minutes worth, to fill two dinks, aka: Sol 1 & 2. The first dink, Sol 1, opens with a spoken word intro then the music finally kicks into gear which is cold forceful sounding black metal reminiscent of MAYHEM that eventually slows down to a doom like atmosphere at various points. "Kollapsar" is fairly impressive with it's wall of Norse influenced blasting. Other songs like "Nebelspinne" and "Tiefer Als Der Tag" add to the uneasiness. I'm more impressed with Skald Draugir's vocal delivery this time around since he sounds vicious as well as haunting. He's perfectly matched with the guitars which attack in layers of pounding force. The drum work follows the same route. Unfortunately there's too much repetitiveness with the song structures. The second disc, Sol 2, starts off exactly like the first except that these cuts are longer. “Aschevolk” invokes a haunting atmosphere which sets the tone for that disc. The ending title cut closes the release with a long guitar solo which will leave you spell bound. Yes this is very good but I think two discs is entirely too much even for a conceptual piece which this undoubtedly is. Maybe one disc with an hour's worth would've been better since changing the discs takes away the momentum.

Label: http://www.lupuslounge.com


Myspace: http://myspace.com/helrunarhorde


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