Setherial is a Swedish bm band with 6 full length albums. 'Nord' is their first LP. With a run-time of about 45 minutes Nord flows very well in a dynamic way. Although this would be considered straight up atmospheric bm it contains fast and mid tempos that blend well together. At times, like the opening 12 minute track 'In the Still of a Northern Fullmoon', the song will flow from a fast fury of dissonant tremolos to a seamless transition of mid-paced melodic strums with a slight underlay of fitting folk instruments. Out of the 6 tracks only 2 of them exceed 6 minutes in length. The production has a good balance of being raw while the listener can still discern the guitars are playing. The drumming execution is of the highest quality and you can hear the dynamics which shows this was done by a real drummer.
One draw back is between tracks the guitar compositions can lack variety at times and during other times the guitar melodies may not sound like anything new but regardless, the overall album is done quite well. However, in the track 'I Nattens Famn', there's some fresh riffs and transitions performed at a high level which contrasts any monotony one might hear. In fact, this is my favorite track due these very reasons.
Throughout this album you will find an even blend of dissonant and melodic riffs although this would hardly be considered a melodic album due to the dark feels throughout. Any melodies you will pick up on are far from the cheesyness that you would find in album tagged as 'melodic'. 'Nord' aims to send the listener into a trance of melancholy and it accomplishes that very well.
