Verging on a black metal super group if you will, Night Crowned are made up of fragments of Aeon, Dark Funeral, Cipher System and Night Rage to echo but a few of the CV’s on show within their realms. Born in Sweden in 2016 and already chalking up an impressive back catalogue to hold under the bullet laden belts, Night Crowned spoilt us with their first full length, ‘Impius Viam’, in 2020 and now are returning with the latest opus ‘Hadanfard’, these Swedish blackened death metal advocates are erupting with another glorious effort of nihilistic, apocalyptic death metal.
This album is brutal, and I mean brutal. Uncompromising and all out battering from start to finish, the drum work from Jaloma is nothing short of mesmerising. The ferocity and speed is ruthless and violent and there is no let up at all, no respite to give your neck muscles chance to compose themselves between the constant whiplash they are enduring. The beat is hypnotic and appears to be the marionettist to the puppets dancing below, and dictates the pace and power at which the whole album plays to.
Opening track, ‘Nattkront’ is the stand out track for me, and that is far from saying its album siblings are weak in any way, it’s just that ‘Nattkront’ seems to absolutely lay waste to you from the opening charge and then just doesn’t stop mauling you at all. There is dominance and authority in the track and the vocals from Romlin are venomous and raucous with absolute power and intention. The rawness and crudeness is beautiful in a darkened approach with each lyric spat out as if it’s being chanted in order to raise Beelzebub from the gates of hell.
The string work on title track ‘Hadanfard’ is also worthy of note, the riffs are truly hypnotic and the intricacy and fastidious nature is nothing short of genius. Both four and six string elements are leading in their own guise and this adds to all facets joining to create a well-rounded and complete compendium verging on perfection.
The sound that Night Crowned have generated in this album is nothing short of being reminiscent of some of the great Scandinavian black metal acts prior to the turn of the century. The album is melancholic and destructive, full of rage and venom. The band initially wanted to release this album as a double package, both in English as well as their mother tongue of Swedish, but it was decided to just release the album in Swedish in order to keep it as honest and authentic as possible.
This is the next generation of raw, dirty and savage black metal, and for me it is potentially album of the year when it comes to 2021 fading into the shadows. Darken the room, put the do not disturb on and turn it up. This is one not to be missed, go on, treat yourself
(9.5/10 Phil Pountney)
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