Sometimes it feels more like we are providing a weather forecast than actually reviewing an album especially when it comes to atmospheric black metal. Here we have a project from Austria led by Thorn which is an apt name due to his guitar histrionics. He is joined by bassist and drummer Phol and Astrega. The album title translates to ‘Over Storm Created Mountains’ and the five tracks here also include ‘A mournful wind blows around the burial mounds’ and ‘In winter, the thoughts pound like hail.’ Pretty damn descriptive and it’s enough to make you want to wrap up warmly before even pressing play. Hāg started out in 2010 with a couple of demos and one album to date, ‘In Traumschwebe erstarrt’ released in 2017 by Wolfmond Productions. Don’t worry if you missed it, there were only 100 copies pressed on CDR apparently. Hopefully with Naturmacht on board more people will hear this.
The drum is tapped and we quickly are flung into a maelstrom of flurrying guitar which is the main impetus of the release. This is dynamic, and controlled, incessantly flailing with an icy, thorny clamour. Drums batter away behind them and the vocals are delivered with hoary low growls as though old man winter is blowing out frozen air. It’s not an all-out cavalcade, there are some gloomy and more introspective parts where things slow down and add a bleak atmosphere to things. Like the weather itself though the next embittered and bracing onslaught is never that far away. With tracks such as ‘En sorgfull vind blåser rundt gravhaugene’ developing over 10-minute running times you feel like you are gaining a bit of ground here before the elements fling you back to where you started. The one exception is a mid-point passage in the form of short instrumental ‘Veien er lang’ which tells us what we probably already worked out and that ‘The Road Is Long.’
Tempos are on the whole pretty hostile and ruthless and although it is a repetitive assault built on the shaking tremolo riff work this is an enjoyable and adventurous album. Traditionalists should quickly find themselves coldly comfortable as it shakes, rattles and rolls through the ribcage and drawn in to the slower frigid atmospheres. There’s not much more to say here to be honest but pressing play and listening to this, one thought should be immediately evident; “Winter is coming” and nothing is going to stop it.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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