Grafvitnir are a black metal band in the grim, frostbitten and occult-laced Swedish tradition and this second outing commences like a howling, spirit-infested hurricane. In fact, speed and searing melody are pretty much a constant throughout as the band adheres to the fundamentals of the black metal tradition as nailed down pretty firmly two decades ago and developed into a fine art ever since. What is great about a band like Grafvitnir is the absolute attention to atmosphere, tireless tremolo riffing and choked vocals that all personifies the true black metal sound. Think Dissection and Necrophobic and all the attention to melodic Swedish dynamism that encapsulates.
There are a lot of positives about the execution of a release like this and, while I have no complaints about the technical skill and the palpable edge to Semen Serpentis, from the outset there is a sense that this is one of those projects that seems determined to take us back to the roots of black metal. Again, I’ve no problem with that but those roots run pretty deep now and you need to be careful tugging at them too hard. In fact, as solid as this is when taken in isolation, the band teeters so close to the honourable adherence to tradition that all I really ended up thinking was whether we needed yet another band to remind us how good black metal – or more specifically, Swedish black metal, can be if you just strip it back to the basics. Staying true to the cause is one thing but perhaps just tweaking things a little to set yourself apart and particularly when we’ve all heard so much good black metal in recent years and so many bands which I think are providing this sort of thing with a sharper edge or a sweeter venom sunk into their song writing,
As is sometimes the case with any band that sticks so close to the formula, at times it borders on parody, lyrically and musically. Maybe I’m missing something but it only takes two lines before we encounter lyrics which all sound a little familiar and the oscillating riffs just begin to dominate a little too much. And while I have no doubt there is some clever stuff here and some wicked and intense playing it all eventually began to wash over me as I thought about the dozens of bands I could compare this to just this year alone. All fine and dandy but at this point in time we need a little bit more from our melodic black metal.
(7/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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