I have been into Naglfar since a friend put their first full length album Vittra on a cassette for me back in 1995. I was swept away by the grandiose melodies and complexities of the heavily involving songs. I should go and blow the dust off that tape and see if it still plays or even go and find the album on CD, it really was a bit of a classic. However since then the band went from strength to strength. The Swedes lost some of the more traditional aspects of their sound and by 2003 release ‘Sheol’ had gone for a much more feral and biting style of melodic black metal. In my opinion they have been really underrated and overlooked by many and deserved more critical acclaim as the sweeping melodic bite of their works which continued on ‘Pariah’ and ‘Harvest’ solidified the group’s position and saw them go from strength to strength.
So fast forward and it has been a full five years since ‘Pariah’ and in 2011 news filtered through that the group are to continue as just a trio featuring Kristoffer on vocals and guitarists Andreas, and Marcus. I guess that means do not expect any live shows in the foreseeable. Mind you I cannot exactly remember them being that prolific in the past on that front.
I expected to be blown away by Téras as I was the last few albums but after quite a few plays I am still waiting for that slap around the face. This really has not got quite the same spark about it and after repeated listens I have to admit that I am finding the album too workmanlike and treading water to be fully satisfied by it. Perhaps tensions in the band have led to this as they have to the long gap in between releases.
The title track sets things up with chants over a melodic canvas forming around gravid growls from the vocal department. At just over 2 minutes though it never really gets going and is not the sort of track you need to whip you up at the start of an album. I guess we could put it down as an extended intro as when ‘Pale Horse’ gallops (sorry) in on a welter of bruising drum blasts things are more accomplished. The speed is certainly there but the fantastic melodies the band are capable of are really lurking here and the guitar harmonics have to be focused on to make their mark. Still it is an accomplished enough brutal head-banger so perhaps I am just expecting too much here. ‘The Monolith’ lives up to its name going for a crushing demeanour and a heavy one as it uncoils in a much slower fashion acting a bit like the rock of the album; a gnarly and craggy one with the guttural rugged vocal roars coursing over it. ‘An Extension Of His Hand And Will’ seems to be the track that was chosen as a pre-release single. I therefore expected a magnificent chorus but it is neither particularly accessible a number or one that remains embedded on my brain after it has finished. It does go like the veritable clappers and blows off the cobwebs that may have set in from the previous number though. Following this we have ‘Bring Out Your Dead’ a song with a title guaranteed to get through to you when it is repeatedly hollered in a Witchery-esque fashion, still although it is a persuasive number it really doesn’t leave the mark I was anticipating.
Things continue at a cracking Mardukian pace and everything is quite listenable and although nothing you have not heard a million times before enjoyable enough. The raging skeletal guitars coursing through Invoc(H)ate blaze away with zealous enthusiasm and you cannot help banging your head along. I keep coming back to the thought that I know the band are capable of more than this though and simply seem to be coasting along on autopilot and that is after giving the album a couple of plays today to try and change my mind about it. Longest song ‘The Dying Flame Of Existence’ finishes Téras off and has me nodding along and getting into its thorny groove and this is not a bad album by any means at all but….
Hopefully the trio at the heart of Naglfar will find a replacement full time drummer, have a think about things and come back firing on all cylinders. Perhaps I will play this again a month down the line and be completely blown away but I somehow doubt it. On one final note of high praise the cover art is as usual fantastic!
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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