If you are reading this, then you will have your own story surrounding a gateway or “Eureka” moment.  The time that something hit your ears and a switch in your brain was tripped like a the infected in 28 Days Later transforming you from an everyday casual listener to music to a rabid raging obsessive with an insatiable lust for riffs and insanity.

For me it was receiving Speed Kills 3 (A Catalogue of Destruction) on one side of a mixtape from a tape trading pal in Leicester who I contacted through Penbangers in Metal Forces. It introduced me to Nuclear Assault, Possessed and Death Angel. I didn’t even have the artwork to look at which is an action shot of some thrash kid flying high over a mosh pit in a spectacular stage dive. That may have blown my teenage mind. There was one track on the tape that really stuck with me “Of Doom” by Bathory.

What the fuck was this?  So fast – what was that crazy vocal? Was it recorded in a cave? Shit this is evil. Is this the sort of record that I have seen reports of the PMRC shouting about over the pond. It scared the crap out of me and enticed me in. I went out to Shades in St Anne’s Court the next week and spent my paper round money on Under the Sign of the Black Mark and a lifetime of obsession with darkness began.

So here I am 35 years later (Ulp!) pressing play on Fire Smoked Upon the Wolf’s Back by Utgardar (excuse the lack of Nordic letters) and I get a shot of youthful nostalgia icily blast through my shell likes.

This Swedish two piece take the speed and intensity of early Bathory and filter it through early Darkthrone to create the five tracks that make up their debut.

Razor sharp riffs and manic drums erupt from the get go.  Opener “The Pyres of Utgard” is rampant and has all the hall marks of Bathory’s debut where thrash and speed metal collided with something darker to pave the way for the Norwegian explosion. The dark doomy melodic vocal sections hint at dark pagan subterranean shenanigans and I, for one am game.  One of the wonderful things about listening to Metal in all its forms is the way it educates. My Norse mythology knowledge is basic if I am honest so when I listen to albums such as this Wikipedia is my friend.  Thanks to Utgardar and track two “Ymir Awakens” I have had a quick skim read about Ymir and a creation myth that includes dwarves and yeasty venom. I am gonna have to go back and read this properly and maybe find a book rather than a quick online article. It is certainly not possible to concentrate when a track of such ferocity is bouncing around the ether.  The vocals of Seidr sit way back in the mix on this track battling with the drums and guitars – it really sounds like a godlike creature forcing its way up through the earth after centuries of rest. The choral vocals which he also supplies give the air of worshippers awaiting a return of a powerful being. Seidr also provides lead guitars whilst Nidafjoll has the task of rhythm, bass and the drumming bombast that drives Ymir out of his slumber. Truly epic sounding.

Could it be a Nordic myth based album without the mention of trolls? Those creatures have got a bad rep of late with snide cowardly internet bullies taking their moniker as a slur. Well here come “Trolls of Muspel, Trolls of Frost” – Muspell is old Norse for a fiery realm so we are on for a tale of fire and ice over the next 8 minutes. This track is a cinematic journey beginning with echoing synthesized vocals leading to a Celtic Frost style section before blasting into a fiery flurry of ferocity. The grandeur of a flame ravaged kingdom is depicted well here and the vocals have the character and gravitas of a mighty fiendish being. The track urges the listener forward until it reaches a bridge between worlds – just a solitary hand drum and what sounds like a sleigh bell made from shells takes our ears over to a winter world where the frost and ice replace the lava-like flurries with frigid sinister riffs and classic black metal naughtiness.

Onto the title track next. Opening with a stark almost industrial riff and mix of rasped vocals and chant-like croons this track has a very different otherworldly feel at first before descending into a blackened maelstrom of orange squeezing.  There is plenty of light and shade in this track without a troll in sight.  The stark guitar line that punctuates the track reminds me of Thorns and there is a delicious darkness permeating throughout.

The final track “Under Soil” has a false start. It begins with a rhythmic heartbeat of drums atop synths that sound like metal pipes being blown like horns.  It feels like a lullaby for the ancients. There is a quick transition to old school Black Metal at the mid-point with tight riffs and blastbeats followed by moan like vocals that lend an ethereal edge.

This album does not sound like a debut – the polish and atmosphere is that of a much more established act and each track evokes both the history of extreme music and the essence of Nordic mythology to great effect.  Definitely one for dark winter nights or hot summer ones round a camp fire.

(8.5/10 Matt Mason) 

https://www.facebook.com/people/%C3%9Atgar%C3%B0ar/100091633175560

https://atmfsssdtp.bandcamp.com/album/fire-smoked-upon-the-wolf-s-back