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Nagelfar > Als die Tore sich öffnen > Reviews
Nagelfar - Als die Tore sich öffnen

"Not all black metal sounds like this" - 30%

Forever Underground, October 23rd, 2021
Written based on this version: 2017, Digital, Ván Records (Bandcamp)

The quote in the title of the review is a phrase my father said when I played him Nagelfar's album "Srontgorrth", this comes because he is more of an avid listener of classic rock so he doesn't like extreme metal, even though he listens to some albums with me from time to time and when I played him the mentioned album I was surprised to see that he liked it and when I mentioned it to him his answer was that. And what does not surprise me is that someone outside the genre can appreciate the musical quality of Nagelfar because they are easily found in the pantheon of the great German black metal bands... when it comes to their main discography.

And I emphasize the main discography because when we listen to this first demo of their history as a band, those of us who know Nagelfar are surprised to find hardly any trace of that characteristic sound, mainly because you can't hear anything, this although it may seem a joke is true, the production is so fucking bad that you can hardly get to hear the music. I remember listening to this same demo earlier this year and I didn't remember the production being so horrible, so I can't say for sure that this is the case with all the versions of this demo, but this is certainly the case with this one. Besides it is not only a production issue but also an execution issue, Zorn's guitar work is one of the worst I have ever heard when he has to lead the composition, I don't consider Nagelfar a band that strongly reinforced on guitars so I don't consider it fair to demand much in this section, but at least in many other works this guitar work was correct, here between being heard badly, out of tune and wrong notes it makes the experience an absolute medieval torture.Vocalist Jander, of whom I am personally a big fan as a singer, also has behind him a mediocre performance of such an extremely amateurish level that I would not be surprised if they told me that this was his third or fourth time taking a microphone, his influences in the singing style of Varg Vikernes are clear but even to simply scream and deliver the lyrics with aggression takes practice and here he slacks in many occasions. The drums are completely dissonant, in some moments it sounds totally buried and inaudible and in other occasions it is what you can hear the most but it is monotonous and lacking of soul and the bass of course is completely entombed. The only instrument to highlight positively are the keyboards of Garvin that would accompany Nagelfar throughout his entire journey with an impeccable musical solidity, it is obvious that in part benefits from the compositions revolving around him but for something good that they have at the technical level it must be said.

Now, it is true that at the level of production and technique this demo is an absolute failure, but if we talk about the compositions things change slightly, before when I said that there was hardly a trace of that characteristic sound of Nagelfar I exaggerate, the truth is that among all the noise you can appreciate structures and styles that would later appear in their later works, not in vain 2 of the 3 songs that we find here would be re-recorded. At this point the sound of Nagelfar could be seen as one strongly inspired by the Enslaved's "Hordanes Land" but looking to be more aggressive and atmospheric at the same time, perhaps this was given by the difference that the two bands gave to the keyboards.

The most important piece of the demo is found in the last track, the first part of the mythic saga of Srontgorrth, an epic 15 minutes song divided in 4 parts and with high musical pretensions, we find a long intro with acoustic guitar, an early use of the late motivs, a more melodic use of Jander's voice and a long outro of only keyboards, all this is ruined in great part by the already mentioned horrible production, and although we are talking about black metal this quality is probably in the limit between "kvlt" and "trve" and the auditory attack. So we can define the first musical proposal of Nagelfar as a work with very clear musical and stylistic ideas that were very very big for them at the point where not even the creators themselves were able to execute it.

It makes me sad to give such a low mark to one of my favorite black metal bands, but it would be to deny the reality of the amount of imperfections and obvious problems that they drag in less than thirty minutes. Fortunately the members of Nagelfar were quick learners and they left us proof of it in their next releases.