30 years of existence, Norwegian, 7 albums including this one, and 3 active members of Khold – that’s Tulus in a nutshell. And it’s black metal of course, a fact which is even less surprising when you know that the tile means “Hell’s Calling”.
The Khold link is very evident in the first piece of fire, which is the title track. Replete with black metal groove, it is threatening and belligerent. A cold riff runs through “Lek” (Play), which stops, strangles us, starts and lets us go, meandering through dark alley ways in between times. “Slagmark” (Battlefield) takes us in a different direction, rampantly surging forward and slowing down as if we’re bogged down in mud. It’s disarmingly melodic at times, whereas at others it’s the music of discomfort. “Allstøtt” is just plain dirty and creepy – it pretended to go somewhere but never did. The familiar Khold-style driving rhythm propels “Isråk’ forward before entering a strange and sinister world. Distorted acoustic sounds precede a dark and funereal sound. “Samuelsbrenna” is the music of death. The haunting vocals of Lena Floetmoen add atmosphere to the already menacing “Sjelesmerte” (Soul Pain) but strangely as I expected it to move into another stage, it ends. I found this once or twice on this album. Tulus state their position and don’t seem to feel the need to develop atmospheres, hence in part I suppose the short duration of the album at 32 minutes. “Bloddråpesvermer” is typical in that it is black and aggressive and takes us through a series of interesting enactments without any sense of direction. The groovy black energy returns with “Snømyrke” (Snow Darkness) and stops to make way for a melancholic acoustic folksy tune. It provides a gloomy end to an album of ephemeral moods.
I quite liked this album but equally I felt dissatisfied. It was as if Tulus were giving us some snapshots of their black metal, but other than the odd invigorating passage, “Fandens Kall” seemed to be about creating musical tableaux but not always doing a lot with them.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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