Bifrost

If Kampen was mid-paced and melodic, the latest album called „Bifrost“ is an unrelenting hailstorm in your face, sweering from grand and jovial to balls-out fury in a mad stampede through norse mythology. A bridge indeed.

Production is clean, which helps in providing you with a 100% clear serving.
Quiet parts are few and far between. The drumming and riffing varies from slow to insane, usually dwelling in the latter region. The solid vocals are either growls or screams. Harsh, but neither annoying nor high-pitched.
The central melodies, around which most songs are built, are catchy and usually blend in perfectly with the ensuing acoustic rape without any unnecessary solo shit or similar fillings.
The melodic parts are designed for the scaldic mood setting and continue on into the delightful cacophony like a red line.

This is direct into-your-face metal. A 1:1 conversion of a viking horde doing its job.

The opener
Hard to find the right words – or is it just too easy ?
You throw in the CD, crank up the volume, press play, and before you sit back you’re suddenly facing a charging mob of enraged berserkers intent on eating your guts for breakfast without saying hello first. This is raw metal twisting into your brain and conveying images of glorious carnage. Viking metal as it should be. A universal „fuck-off“ to anything soft and fluffy. Step aside, child, its my turn now. A first-class seat on a trip to Llindisfarne. You get the meaning.
Screaming, aggressive riffing and drumming right from the first second onwards. Extremely catchy melody. Listen to it for yourself.


The closer
It sounds like a recapitulation on the way home, almost sludging from the speakers like molten snow, albeit gore-stained. Slow-paced and heavy, it trails off into the mid part circling around the central melody, and suddenly all hell breaks loose in a final display of alternating Aerelos-reminiscent riffs and the same slow-paced melodies, thereby closing the circle of this great album.

In between
Black, ice-cold viking metal.
Play loud, entertain your neighbours to despair.

Elite has lived up to its name and produced one of the most evolved and yet raw old-school viking metal albums of all time. If they name a track Isberg or Vikingfjord, then they fucking mean Isberg or Vikingfjord. Nothing to whine about concerning cliches. If you like honest full-out metal and detest fillers, this is your album. If you want subtle progressive music, you wont. You’d like Tool and wouldn’t be on this site.

Outstanding tracks
Aerelos, Bifrost