Nåstrond / Myrkr

I have been on the hunt for any Nastrond material for a long time but there material is almost impossible to find on CD anymore so that only leave vinyl releases, which are also quite hard to come by. This split was the only thing I could find anywhere, I have never herd of Myrkr but I figured they would be worth a shot so I purchased it. Both bands play raw underground black metal, no fancy experimentation, no ambient parts just pain and simple black metal.

Nastrond

There material is much more somber compared to the Myrkr tracks. After a short intro the guitars start up with slower droning riffs in the typical black metal tuning, the bass guitar is almost non-existent (which wasn’t surprising) and the drumming for the most part sounds programmed. The vocals sound distorted (they fade in an out), there mixed about right so there not totally buried in the mix but are still incomprehensible by any means. This pattern keeps up for there two actual songs (the third track sound more alive, they even add in background chanting) and there side is concluded by a spoken word outro track. Final score: 90

Myrkr

The Myrkr tracks are much more violent sounding than the Nastrond tracks. Everything is much faster but the instrumental composition is still quite similar to the previous side. The tracks are mixed much louder than the Nastrond side; the bass is still just as existent as before, the riffs are similar but the drumming sounds more human this time around. The vocals are violently distorted and seemed to be buried under the guitar noise. My only actual problem with there half of the split is that there material is much shorter and there side seems unfinished in comparison to the Nastrond tracks. Final score: 85

This split was worth the purchase seeing as it is a nice introduction to both bands. Nastrond seem to however carry Myrkr a little bit, there half seems lazy and unfinished. This split will likely disappear from the world very quickly like most underground European black metal vinyl so if you a fan of either band I would get this as soon as possible.