Chances are you have not heard of Høstsol who have only just emerged out the Autumn Sun but the players within this new project are another matter. Some will no doubt be tagging this with the supergroup descriptor but I think a ‘meeting of f(r)iends” is far more apt. Borne out of admiration for the work of Manes we see vocalist Niklas Kvarforth taking an aside from Shining and working with Cernunnus on guitar from the Norse masters. On bass is Kalmos ex Barathrum and on drums his current bandmate in Ajattara Rainer Tuomikanto. Paths are intertwined over various bands and all are very busy in other projects not least Niklas building up Shining from the ground again and putting together their opus number XI as well as running his Sinister Initiative imprint, who are releasing this debut album in conjunction with Avantgarde Music. Long Live Death is the album title’s translation into English and this is a glorification in 5 songs to the great lord Der Todesking himself. Introductions and reading that the recording was undertaken over a 2-year “awful unhealthy process” making you wish to have been a fly on the wall, no doubt you are salivating and wondering what the music is actually like.
These are all fairly lengthy numbers and starting with the English entitled ‘As Seen Through The Eyes Of The Prophet’ we are eased in with pleasant choral strains and piano before venomous yet melodic blackness sets in. Bass is lovely and thick working perfectly with the buzzing guitar, drums tap out at a mid-pace and things are suitably rich under an Andy LaRocque mastering job. It seems a while since we have heard those vocal snarls unleashed and they are instantly identifiable rasping away with powerful embittered venom. Bridges between tracks here are filled with sections of ambience as both outro and intro, giving things and eerie coating. Det som en gång var (det kommer aldrig igen) translation What once was (will never be again) is far more abrasive with a faster and more urgent battery from Rainer and more vexed and strident vocals from the frontman. Its angry and virulent, textured with both viciousness and strange shard like glimmers from Cernunnus casting a Manes like avant-garde weirdness over it. Dropping out briefly into dreamlike state, a buzzsaw grinding riff powers the track back in just after it has mesmerised, the effect quite startling.
‘Länge leve den ansiktslöse mördaren’ translation ‘Long live the faceless killer’ starts off with Gregorian chanting before its muse embarks on merciless butchery in the abbey, stabbing and slashing away with wild abandon. It’s a glorious rite of blasphemous death make no mistake as it conjures obscene imagery in my head and gallops away drenched in bloody melody. It is the bass here you find yourself coasting along on when the vocals drop out and a lengthy instrumental passage is quite sublime allowing plenty of breathing space within this 10-minute epic. ‘Din skördetid är nu kommen’ translation ‘Your Harvest Time Has Come’ is at first a doomier treatise with ravenous soul-reaping vocals and gets right under the skin before spiralling weaves clamour for attention. Last thorny nail in this coffin goes to ‘Parallellt dubbelliv’ (translation) ‘Parallel Double Life’ serves as a cold suffocating meditation on existence and the ultimate triumph of its inevitable demise. Mission achieved.
Not an immediate listen due to length and complexity of songs this one grows on you like mould. Whether this blossoms with maggots into a project for further explorations and albums remains to be seen but for now its fetid odour can be considered suitably effective.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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