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Setherial > Nord... > Reviews
Setherial - Nord...

Like milk from a mother's breast - 100%

Mikesch Lord, December 10th, 2023

If you want to make yourself truly sad, go get this album and you will see how many black metal albums that are not THIS ONE are completely laughable attempts at greatness, passion, dark romance and pure unfiltered metal music. This is one of those records that ruined my fucking life. Records that made me unsusceptible for so unbelievably many arms of art, culture, hedonism and self fulfillment. The debut album of Setherial has me rocking back and forth on a brittle bench in the forest where I gaze into the air and at the falling snow flakes like a small and helpless child. "Nord..." has three points in its title because after "Nord", there is only blind and deaf eternity. Setherial never even came close to their debut ever again.

This album would not exist like it does without the influence of "In The Nightside Eclipse" but it has found its own path despite using a lot of similar ingredients. But "Nord..." is a bit more down to earth than its brother, it is roaming through the thick virgin snow while the other one is riding the dark heavens. "Nord..." is so fantastically at peace with itself because it knows its own true worth like the back of its hand.

I do not miss a single thing on "Nord...". The production is exactly like it has to be to catch the pure maximum of energy and atmosphere, the high fertile screechings and salty grains of a young and stalwart winter poem with just the exact portion of morbidity are perfectly encapsulated by that seemingly chaotic but magnificently technical drum performance with a marvelous thick and authentic sound. The ride cymbals are banging away like the bells on a horse sleigh that is bringing new firewood for the oven. The riffs with their grandiose and rural magic of escapist horror tremolo and ice cold demon chords have the one and only timbre that I am willing to accept as perfect black metal guitar playing. The whole thing has an old and murky feeling but still cries in crystal clear pathways until your heart is reached and crushed. The vocals on "Nord..." are screams atop of screams, shrill, proud, hysterical and cool at the same time. An often unintelligible howling of an almost shattered throat that is as animalistic as it is human.

"Nord..." shall never return again because its times are definitely over. The sense of wonder and excitement, the mood of a scene that had just learned to stand on its own two feet, the mysteries of tape trading, the echoes of the eighties and the unsure future that no one had written, those were the days of "Nord..." and now they only live on in memory and in this record. A dumbed down generation of Tiktok-monkeys is incapable of creating something like this because its essence is as alien as it is lonely in its violent longing for ancient melodies and frosty serenity.

The Great Coldness - 99%

Killer_Clown, February 14th, 2012

Music on "Nord" is what I call real black metal. Setherial sets an example of northern top-class BM without any touches of other styles or genres. Maybe, this music is not very intelligent that sets you thinking about something lofty, but in the final analysis this is not the aim of Setherial. They just do their job well and competently and I have no reasons for complaint. Of course, I will never listen to such a music from some modern bands, because it's worth doing some new instead of copying the giants like mentioned Setherial, Dark Funeral or Marduk. That style was used by many less or more successful groups, but now it is not deserves the attention if it's done by new bands.

"Nord" is simultaneously melodic and hard, beautiful and distorted, as cold as the winter in Sweden and as hot as summer in Hell. It doesn't open something new in black metal but swedish experts were pioneers in this extreme subgenre. I can't call it true, but on the other hand, can somebody call "Nord" very tuneful or harmonious?

It's perfectly well, when some taken band (for the present instant I took Setherial) issues such a cool debut release. "Nord" reflects the main point of the existence, life and atmosphere in the North. First of all you fixes your eyes on the cover of this album, on which we can see the scandinavian forest in the wintry weather. So, as you can notice, the cover has a big count, especially on devotees of the chill northern music, whom I surely am.

In general, the songs on "Nord" don't differ from one another very much. But it doesn't really matter, because in the whole it is great classic nordic release with infrequent acoustic passages, hard riffs and flawless BM melodies.

"Nord" starts with the very long song, what happens in such a sub-genre occasionally, called "In The Still Of A Northern Fullmoon" full of the viking hatred and anger. Then comes the classical Setherial's song "Mörkrets Tid", which is not less fast or spiteful, but it has some acoustic moments that make this song softer. Next song "Över Det Blodtäckta Nord" is even longer than the first. Maybe it is very lengthy and it's hard to listen to it all of the 14 minutes but that fact doesn't affect badly on the perception of this distinguished album. The forth song also shows the pure hatred and malicious mood, in which this track is resembling with the other stuff on "Nord". However "För Dem Mitt Blod" and "I Skuggornas Dunkla Sken" are different from the previous tracks by its solos and passages, they really bring some diversity into the album.

As a sum I surely recommend you to listen to Setherial. Trust me; it's worth spending 45 minutes of your free time listening to this cold swedish masterpiece.

Black Metal Winter Storm - 100%

Kristenhat666, November 12th, 2006

Have you ever left a calm and warm place to go out into an intense snow storm? This is exactly what the beginning of SETHERIAL ‘s “NORD” feels like. This album is truly one of a kind, the most inspired release of a band that was one of the pillars of the Swedish Black Metal scene.

Let’s take it one step at a time. When one grabs hold of the CD, the first thing one notices is the cover. Back then, BM bands took great care when it came to the overall impression their albums made. SETHERIAL were no different. Inside the decorative, ancient looking frame, we are treated to the sight of falling snow and trees covered with their mantle of winter majesty. The title, “NORD”, is the most appropriate word to describe such surroundings. The band made a wise choice by opting for silver lettering for both their logo and the album title. The impression of bleakness and cold is made more overwhelming this way.

But why don’t we focus on the songs a bit. Some people have criticized the length of tracks 1 and 3, claiming that it’s too much for a song to last 12 to 14 minutes. This would indeed be true if “NORD” were meant for indoor listening. However, the album was created to invoke a specific mood when the presence of winter is mirrored in a spell of snow. Yes, “spell” in both its meanings. The listener is not expected to focus on the separate tracks presented on the CD. Far from that. The songs are akin to different acts of the same play, constituting an ensemble one must grasp to fully enjoy. And I definitely do!

The production of the album is exactly what it should be: the sound has that magical wintry tone to it, yet is not soiled by those artificial, overstressed high frequencies that later became the trademark of The Abyss studios. On the contrary, the audio aspect of “NORD” was raised to incredible dimensions of suggestibility. The snow-clad nature, the ever falling snow and the resounding music seem to melt into one dimension for the listener to explore. A grim dimension where life in any shape or form cannot subsist.

The lyrics are mostly in Swedish, except for “In the Still of a Northern Fullmoon”. This does not diminish anyone’s enjoyment of the album, as the texts, growled forth by extreme vocals, are not always easy to understand anyway. Both the lyrics and the vocals are not frontline here, they are merely another element that cries (literally) winter, like a howling wind carrying the snow towards unknown realms of darkness.

Would I recommend “NORD”??? If my words throughout this review made any sense to you, then the answer is yes. If you read it while skipping some parts that you could not identify with or wondered what I was writing about, then stay away from this BM masterpiece. Better yet: stay away from Black Metal!

Passionate, epic, and cold - 93%

The_Ghoul, June 28th, 2006

Setherial are a great brand of bm, original enough to pique my interest, but not so original that there is no discernable root. While this is by no stretch of the imagination completely original, it is quite original in its own ways. So what is Nord...?

Nord is certainly fast, but, due to the nature of the mixing and performance, drums really weren't put front center. Sure, they have this monstrous, majestic sense to them, but this isn't fast drumming for fast drumming's sake. Nord is an anomaly, in that sense. It's colder than fuck and is certainly kvlt, but it's got a very great performance, and a weird (but REALLY GOOD) production. The production is certainly abyss flavoured (as that's where it was recorded) because of the metallic guitars and drums. However, Peter Tatgtren must've been feeling like doing something different, because the MIX is more akin to Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse. The drums are dominated by the bass drum and cymbals, as opposed to Tatgtren's usual snare. The guitars form a haze of sound over the drum holocaust, creating a storm of fury and passion. So does it belong in the "tr00" section of black metal? Or the abyss-y, brutal, death metal influenced section? Clearly the former. The addition of acoustic guitars on most of the songs lend it an epic quality, as do the long song lengths.

So have I answered the question, "What is Nord?" Not really. Why? Because Nord is, oddly enough, impossible to peg. Everytime you think you have it down, it surprises you with another odd detail. The only certain thing is, it's 100% atmosphere. It is PERFECT for getting in the black metal mood. There is not a bad moment, AT ALL, on the CD. So why didn't I give this a 99 or a 100? Because there are times when it sorta drags on, without carrying much with it, and the first and third songs could've been a bit shorter. Overall, that doesn't detract much, if any, from the album, and this is easily one of the best black metal albums I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. It belongs in the category of such albums as Dissection's "Storm of the Light's Bane", Demilich's "Nespithe", Burzum's "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", and Deteriorot's "In Ancient Beliefs", in the sense that it's really flawless. The only flaw it EVER has is the dearth (not lack) of completely awesome riffs. It's that good.