The Norwegian black metal quartet Helheim is back with “landawarijaR”. It’s still early 2017 and the listeners already have in hands a very good album of pagan black metal that could be one of the genre best releases of the year. It was a conscious move to pick up from where the last record ended, since the band created a sound that could easily be recognised as Helheim’s if the previous record was listened. Being the aforementioned a specially hard achievement when we’re talking about black metal.
It’s some kind of continuation, with great songs like “Ymr”, “Baklengs mot intet”, “Ristablodørn”, “LandawarijaR”, and the majestic “Ouroboros”, that show us a band that kept the songs writing process very Bathory driven, but with a special grim touch of their own. There is a dark essence that flows through the record in a very organic way, with something old and ancient from medieval times.
Released via Dark Essence Records the album was recorded during the course of 2016 at the Conclave and Earshot Studios in Bergen, Norway. Produced by Bjørnar Nilsen, and mastered by Herbrand Larsen, there’s not one single bad song on this album. V’gandr did bass and vocals, Hrymr the drums, H’grimnir the guitars and vocals, and Reichborn on lead guitars. The album also includes special vocal guests like William Hut, Morten Egeland, Pehr Skjoldhammer, Bjørnar E. Nilsen, and Ottorpedo.
In short, the listener has here a great black metal album that does not incorporate rock n’roll riffs, but provides something that comes straight from this genre. Some bands may force this sonority and the result may not be the most wanted, but that’s surely not case here.
7/10
Review by Daniel Lemminkainen
Managing Editor: Elsa Marques
