How can a band be both so old as to be intensely familiar, but also on their debut album? That is the question that immediately leaps out at me from Steinras’ first, self-titled offering.
Because while this might be Steinras’ first offering to the metal gods, there doesn’t seem to be anyone involved in its production that hasn’t been in at least 2-3 other bands. The two members of the band themselves (Steinar Aven and Arne Gandrud) have been in a lot of previous outfits (including the superbly named Amazing Assholes), and then there’s the list of guest stars. Now, the tendency of black metal artists to play musical chairs is nothing new. Black metal bands have always lent/borrowed artists to and from other bands at an impressive rate, even by standards of metal, but the sheer number of guests here is quite something, and that’s not even getting into the calibre of said guests. You’ve got artists here from Tsjuder, Taake, Gehenna, Gaahl’s Wyrd, and a whole heap of others, who are mostly to be found on vocals, but Steinras have also borrowed more than one bassist, guitarist, and drummer.
Which leads me to another question: how much is this actually a band in the true sense? The press pack describes this album as a “project”, and I would have to agree with that description. There’s so much going on here, and so many musicians from elsewhere putting their own stamp on each track that as a whole this feels more like an anthology than a regular album by a single band. It’s a bit like a tribute album, such as my old favourite Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone, in that there’s a distinctive sound that holds the album together, but each track represents a different group’s take on that sound. In the same way that the likes of Enslaved and Immortal (and, fittingly, Gehenna) tackled Darkthrone classics while still bringing their own style to the track they covered, there’s a clear Steinras style here, but each combination of Aven, Gandrud and all of the above guests (it appears to be a different combination on each track) produces a different interpretation of it.
Which is novel, I’ll give them that. What’s also novel is how the album also functions as a whistlestop tour of pretty much everything that lurks under the umbrella of black metal. There’s straight traditional black bits, there’s a groove-heavy black ‘n’ roll element, there’s some blackened proggy bits, there’s a bit (lot) of death-tinged second wave black and all sort of other bits that I haven’t quite nailed down yet. Oh, and there’s also more big, epic earwormy riffs than a black metal album of any flavour has any right being in possession of. One of which is currently competing for headspace with a track off the Korpiklaani album I reviewed a little while ago, which is a hell of a compliment for a genre that’s not exactly known for its earworms. Well, apart from In the Shadow of the Horns, which despite being on the subtler end of earworms, has still been firmly lodged in my brain for longer than I care to remember at this point.
So, to recap: Steinras are a new band/project, but made up of and assisted by the great and the good of the Norwegian black metal scene. Every track is different, but they’re all black metal. They’re black metal, but it’s catchy as hell. There’s a different combination of musicians on every single track (as far as I can work out), yet I could pick the Steinras sound out of a lineup. The whole thing is basically a record and celebration of a scene whose members are famously taciturn and (perceived as or actually) a bit morose, yet they’ve quite obviously had a blast putting this album together.
None of it makes any sense, and while I could put Steinras under the microscope and pull it apart to find out how it works, I’d really rather not. Because it’s not going to change the world, but it is a huge amount of fun to listen to, and enjoy the absolute chaos that is essentially making your debut a tribute album. For your own sound. If nothing else, you’ve got to admire the courage/vision/balls involved in putting this out into the world, and if you like black metal of any variety, you’ll almost certainly find something you like along the way too.
(8/10 Ellie)
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