“Contact info/social media: Nothing”. Nothing wrong with this of course, and the risk is duly avoided of me being sullied by words in advance of listening. I do know that Kråbøl are an established band from Norway, play black metal and have fingers in the pies of other bands, among them Thorns and Khold. Oh, and apparently the Kråbøls are a family, including Granddad Kråbøl on trumpet. So the hills are alive with the sound of Kråbøls, but I somehow didn’t envisage myself drawing comparison with the redoubtable von Trapps or for that matter the Partridge family.
This latter view was affirmed when I heard the dirty, spewing distortions and blasting of “Talisman” coming my way. With a siren signalling danger and catastrophe, this is an impressive piece of fiery filth. “Perish” goes off with similar intensity and pace, leading me to wonder if there was more to this than venomous assault and battery, impressive and intoxicating as it is. In the middle it does slow down, and we are faced with a passage of dispassionate menace and haunting terror. So maybe there is hope, musically speaking at least. “Nattsvarte Brunn” starts in that bombastic black metal style that you’d associate with the 90s of Burzum and the like. The guitar line hangs in the air like rotting meat. Progress is dark, inevitably, and oozing with threat.
The album marches on malevolently. Vocalist B. Kråbøl roars in the ugliest manner possible. Drums hammer. The guitars blaze away and create the environment of a burning temple where no mercy or leeway is given. Atmospherically it’s nasty, make no mistake about it. That’s “The Blacken’d Water’d Sleep”. The only conceivable follow-up can be a piece which tears chunks out of anyone who happens to be listening, and that’s what the slab-like “Fundaments” does. Round and round it goes dismally and remorselessly. It’s like a heavy ode to the absence of hope. “Armodsgrå” (Poverty Grey) starts equally grimly. On it plods dismally. It’s more produced than the 90s black metal of which it’s derivative but it’s certainly got that era’s ambience, if that’s the right word. Even the guitar section towards the end smacks of contempt and defiance.
“Never” goes through all the right motions for a black metal album. Atmospherically it has everything you’d expect – bleakness, malevolence, aggression, nihilism, menace and hopelessness. Without really adding anything, Kråbøl seem to have created a modern compendium of early black metal with this album.
(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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