First album for Åskog.
Created in 2020 in Sweden by Lars Hansson (bass/vocals, ex-Murdryck, ex-Extirpated) and Adam Chapman (guitar, Hex, ex-Murdryck), the duo releases a demo the same year, then Varþnaþer, its first full-length.
Recorded with the help of Chilean Rod Nihilist (Grave Malefice, Phantasmagore, Putrid Yell) on drums and the artwork from Russian illustrator Mayhem Project (Dehydrated, Khors, Raven Throne, Welicoruss), the duo offers a Black Metal with several influences. We have some aggressive and dissonant Thrash accents on the energetic Svält, the first song, but also a haunting ambience on Vinter, a song with mystical Old School accents. The band also offers unhealthy sonorities borrowed to swedish winter’s coldness for Tid, a stabbing but still hooking song. Måne goes back to rage, bloodthirst and fastness, then suddenly drops us to heady harmonics before Varg, an as raw as airy song, that was already recorded on the band’s demo. Riffs are epic and dark, while being still shrilling and impressive, but the ambience slowly surrounds us before fading away and giving life to Korp, another song from the band’s demo, that shrouds us with its ghostly melodies. Eld reconnects with unholy and pagan dissonant influences for some catchy track, then Aska closes the album with black harmonics and freezing harmonics to fit the seizing and worrying ambience.
Åskog’s Old School influences give them a special taste. Varþnaþer is a seizing album that fully exploits the band’s Black Metal coldness to offer some sharp and raw songs that will be enjoyed for sure.
85/100