Kampfar continues its journey with a new album.
Formed in Norway in 1994, the band led by Dolk (vocals, formerly drums, Mock), Jon Bakker (bass, Fester), Ask (guitar, Hades Almighty) and Ole Hartvigsen (guitar, Emancer) has announced the release of Til Klovers Takt, their ninth album, through Indie Recordings.
The album begins with Lausdans under stjernene and its worrying sounds which quickly welcome an abrasive saturation and raw ragged vocals. The throbbing sound sometimes goes back to soothing clean tones before letting blast and frantic riffs come back to life, but the band’s Folk influences temper the Black Metal fury before giving way to Urkraft and its chilling groove. We feel some slowness as well as airy melodies which perfectly fit with vocal parts’ intensity, but the sound will explode with a visceral rage coupled with a dissonant rhythm which drives us to a climax which abruptly stops before Fandens Trall returns in an Old School Black Metal, letting mysterious sounds appear. The cavernous vocals mix with airy melodies which guide to a soothing final, then to Flammen fra Nord and its raw rage which lets unbridled riffs be used as a basis for abrasive screams. The band doesn’t forget its melancholy with slower and melodious parts, but fury expresses itself before Rekviem, a composition based on the same model of contrast between aggressiveness and quietness while offering an extremely catchy rhythmic. The band’s Pagan roots are fully expressed on this intense track, just like on the cold Dødens aperitiff, the last composition, which skillfully links an Atmospheric Black Metal with their influences, paired with distant and majestic samples, allowing them to shroud us in a majestic rhythmic pattern punctuated by vocals.
Kampfar stays true to its roots and asserts once again its icy sounds anchored in a Black Metal with Pagan influences. Til Klovers Takt is an uncompromising album which exactly knows where it’s going while choking us under its solid riffs.
90/100