Info
- Band(s): Svartkonst
- Label(s): Trust No One Recordings
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, CD
- Release Year: 2020
- Review Date: April 30, 2020
- Author(s): DPF
Damn! Time flies fast! I remember when Svartkonst released the debut album “Devil’s Blood”, a muscular amalgame of Black/Death, embracing the school of Stockholm (Dismember and the likes) and the black melodic frost storms of bands like Unanimated, Dissection or even Mgła, something you will here on the new record “Black Waves” even more.
“Death Magic” starts right with a quite HM2 laden offering, going more towards the Death Metal side of the spectrum while the black core is always present.Afterwards more and more Black Metal artistry makes a liaison with the typical Swedish Death Metal riffs, alternating between punkish power chord sections, melodic mid-tempo soundscapes enhanced with melodic lead works and excellent drum and bass work, pushing, pounding. Bloodbath, Demonical, Strigoi, Unanimated and some short Mgła references can be found here and all mixed in a way that fits to the name Svartkonst.
“Black Waves” is a well-chosen title. The songs flow, they move onwards to destroy and infiltrate deep within one’s soul. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow but no less effective as can be heard on the stand out track “Stray In The Dark” a Black/Death/Doom monster that can be easily stand against acts like Paradise Lost or many others.
Excellent song writing is the key to write great works and “Black Waves” belongs to those. I mean, a track like “Mountains of Flesh” is just amazing! Crushing heavy Death Metal with some eerie haunting melodies, double bass artillery, RIIFFSS and now let me mention it, some killer vocal performance done by Rickard Törnqvist.
The album concludes with the title track, a 10 minutes monster that starts off with clean/acoustic layered guitars and then transfers its beauty into an epic metal journey, reprisal of the acoustic theme included, one of the strongest black pearls of the year for sure (that chorus!!).
“Black Waves” became the follow up I was looking for and should put Svartkonst on everyone’s list who loves Black/Death Metal, the Swedish way! Congrats!