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Vemoth > Köttkroksvals > Reviews
Vemoth - Köttkroksvals

Vemoth - Köttkroksvals - 90%

Phuling, April 19th, 2008

At first I waited a bit to review this album, since I figured it’d be very easy as I really like it. But now, after listening to it many, many times, and it’s time to actually write it, I find that it can be extremely difficult to review a great album.

Köttkroksvals starts off in a raging inferno of marvellous strings and fierce drumming. Fast-forward, pounding melodic black metal with keyboard effects embedded. And that last instrument is often what scares me away from bands, ‘cause the keyboard often gets out of hand and takes over. But not here, its effect really enhances the dark and hateful atmosphere. Some absolutely killer riffs and a tight drumming, ranging from thunderous heavy breakdowns and bloody wicked blasting. Very energetic tunes that really draws you in, and to make an even bigger impact there are some powerful back-ups in some tunes. As I mentioned it’s to the melodic side of black metal, but the vocals gives it a really rough and hateful edge. It’s ultra raspy, grim and pretty original vocals gasping the dark lyrics. And the lyrics are pretty cool, but written in Swedish so only us Scandinavians have a clue to what’s going on. But lemme tell you it’s dark and morbid, and fits the amazing artwork perfectly. Even the band photo fits the recipe! Unfortunately the lyrics to Mänskligt Avskräde is missing, and printed are the lyrics to Mörka Drömmar once again. Funnily enough parts of the lyrics reminds me a lot of Finntroll’s debut Midnattens Widunder. It has absolutely nothing to do with trolls here, but it has that same sinister aura.

Three of the tracks are from the Blodregn demo, but here with re-recorded vocals. Don’t be alarmed though, the fact that it’s demo tracks doesn’t mean crappy sound. It has the same full sound as the rest of the album, which is way better than most black metal recordings. Eventhough I think this is an absolutely awesome debut, I have to admit that the vocals tend to get a little monotonous in the long run. But since that’s the only remark I can make on an otherwise terrific CD with powerful tunes and great musicianship I’ll let it pass. Something you’ll not find on many other albums is a thank you to everyone who committed suicide during 2005, hehe.

Huh, now that I think of it, it wasn’t difficult at all to review once I got started. It’s simply a great album of catchy black metal.

Originally written for www.mylastchapter.net