It’s often well worth trawling through the vast array of promo material that is thrown at us and ignoring the bigger bands for those that are new underdogs just starting out. Treasure can be found and as far as Danish brigands Heltekvad are concerned with just one short track released prior to this debut album we have indeed stumbled on a glistening trove of it. With the trio all having links to Afsky, they describe their craft as medieval black metal which I readily admit being an absolute sucker for. One play was undertaken and I was well and truly hooked on this short, fiery and savage album. With track titles (and I’m not getting bogged down in cutting and pasting) translating to the likes of ‘’Reverent Is The One Who Wins’ and ‘By The Blade Of The Sword You Shall Die’ the timing here is absolutely perfect for anyone equally ensnared in the Netflix Vikings Valhalla series. Indeed, there is no difficulty in seeing imagery of Danish King Canute marauding against Edmund and the dishonourable British forces with this as a victorious soundtrack.
One thing you should be forewarned about is the vocal stance from Ole Pedersen Luk. It’s incredibly shrill and strident, his distempered screams and yells really piercing the eardrums. For me its perfectly pitched around the blazing musicianship and just gives everything an even greater sense of extremity. As far as the feudal tremolo ripping guitar playing and booming drums are concerned, most of the album goes like the veritable clappers. There are some slower moments but for those who like their blackness of the fast variety there are many huge surges to contend with. So too are the medieval parts, normally interludes as such at the start of the songs. A trill of pipes will thrust you into darker times momentarily before they are swiped aside by a gauntlet gloved furrow.
I’m at a loss to translate the group’s name but if it were ‘heraldic triumph’ I would not be surprised in the slightest as that is exactly what you get here. Thrusting you into a fully-pitched bloodthirsty battle at every twitch and turn, this is an album that is all about “Victory,” and there’s no time to mourn the fallen as the conclusion readily admits ‘Death Stands At The Gate Of Heaven’ (or should that be Valhalla?) Heltekvad, probably the best medieval black metal band from Denmark right now!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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