No, I was not exactly impressed by the sophomore album of this Norwegian Pagan-ish Black Metal act. That record, ‘Legd’ from 2020, sounded much like a middle-of-the-road affair that was not able to touch anything slightly memorable. It might be telling that the band self-released the album only in digital form after which it took a year for two small labels that were interested in releasing it on cassette tape and CD and another year passed before it was picked up by the band’s current label for a release on all three most common sound carriers. Still, Hellstain Productions seemed to have been enthusiastic enough to at least sign up for Ulvhedner’s third record that was released at the very end of 2023.
Although I have not made a secret of the fact that ‘Legd’ didn’t bring up much, I must admit that ‘Fjosmetall’ is definitely a step up compared to its predecessor. But fairness dictates that this third album indeed offers a bit more to chew on, yet it never reaches a level of quality to allow the band to be mentioned in the same breath as the most well-known bands in the Folk-tinged Pagan/Black Metal genre. But, let’s focus on the more positive things first: the band’s sense of melody and overall song writing seems that have progressed quite a lot in the years that passed since the previous recordings appeared. Almost every song has at least one hook that offers a melody that is a potential earworm. But… most of the times the song is (still) not forged in such manner that it really becomes that earworm that keeps you pushing the “play”-button each time and again. Take a song like ‘Traust’ for instance, it has a great lead melody, but the main riff is so basic that it barely surpasses the level of a school band.
In general, ‘Fjosmetall’ fits perfectly in the collection of people who love their fair share of Folky/Pagan-like Black Metal. In my review for ‘Legd’ I drew a comparison to bands like Helheim, Windir and Einherjer, you can still keep this in mind, yet the slight touch of Graveland seems to have been completely exchanged for a thorough (and almost shameful copycatting sort of) Enslaved and Bathory like ambiance. This makes Ulvhedner sound like the little brother of Ereb Altor (listen to ‘Øve Nuten’ for instance). Positive thing is that the band unmistakably took their band a step up from their earlier recordings, so they at least proved there is more where this all came from…
