Classic Swedish melodic black metal here from a band who should really need no introduction. Naglfar burst into being with debut album Vittra in 1995. Around this time, I and no doubt many others were discovering the likes of fellow Swedes In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Lord Belial & Dissection listening to albums like Skydancer, The Gallery, Lunar Strain & The Somberlain. Although many of that ilk have gone down different paths or are sadly no longer with us there was a congruence between them all with their highly melodic take on things, skilful instrumentation and the clinging onto the roots of history and their folkloric origins. Naglfar had a bit of a revolving door line up in the mid 90’s and evolved to a storied and highly respected outfit over the next decade with some storming and to be frank, highly vicious albums such as the likes of Sheol and Pariah but went a little quiet after Harvest in 2007, not emerging for another 5 years with follow up Téras. Leading up to this the group had made the decision to hone things down into a trio consisting of Kristoffer W. Olivius, Marcus E. Norman (both also of Bewitched) and Andreas Nilsson. Although far from a case of the rot setting in, for me this album was a bit of a glitch for them and in my opinion somewhat workmanlike and by far their least inspiring album of their career thus far. At the time giving it a highly unexpected low mark of 6.5/10, I commented that I hoped they would come back firing on all cylinders in the future.
The good news is that they have and done so with exactly the same line-up. The album sees the trio ramping up the energy a huge amount and delivering a swaggering return to glory with the drive and viciousness that I had become accustomed to in the past. This is made more than evident with the title track (and if you were wondering, Cerecloth is waxed cloth used for wrapping a corpse in) greats us with the whistling of the wind and a bilious and snarling deluge of thorny guitars and gravid hateful rasps swarm in. Yep, off like the clappers, it is fast and furious with more than a touch of that spiteful malevolence I had previously missed. Throw in the tumult the rage of Dark Funeral and Marduk into the mix and yep Naglfar are back and making a statement of intent with the force and fury of their past glories very much in the frame. The melodic guitar weaving and grooves of ‘Horn’s has Olivius vilely spewing out vitriol over the top and making listeners want to cast the subject matter in the air as some leadwork comes spiralling out in glorious reverence to all that is beastly and devilish. The 9 tracks here and 45 minute running time show that nothing is left to waste particularly and the playability has been very strong due to the commanding nature of things with the album hitting the mark quickly following on from the very 1st play.
At times signature fretwork suddenly hits and you can easily see how that stems through from that classic Swedish framework of doing things that flows from the aforementioned acts right through to the work of bands such as Watain. Its not all delivered at breakneck speed and the insidious nature of numbers with a mid-paced stomp such as ‘Like Poison for the Soul’ infect with stealth and guile. By comparison ‘Vortex Of Negativity’ is a hostile blazing shredfest that takes absolutely no prisoners and leaves you feeling pumped up and vitriolic in its wake even as it flows into a doomy and depressive, grandiose waltz of morbidity. Although the occultist vibes are very much evident Naglfar have never been ones to bog you down looking into subject matter, the music itself is enough to create an atmosphere without the need for things going into the obtuse and for that reason this is an enjoyable dark listen that is easy enough to consume at its own base levels. With some fantastic lead breaks bringing the musicianship into the fore on ‘The Dagger in Creation’ to the breakneck attack and strafing shred of the Mardukian ‘A Sanguine Tide Unleashed’ there’s plenty of variation and identity spread over the songs to keep you on your toes. The band may well themselves have summed Cerecloth as containing “the usual death and destruction” which it certainly does but they may have undersold themselves a little as it is everything I could have hoped for and a solid album and return to form which sees me very happy to give it a much more respectable mark this time around
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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