Review Summary: Black metal at its absolute peak.
Black metal bands don’t have it easy these days. Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s when the genre was first coming to form, it wasn’t hard to shock people or amaze people with the satanic imagery or the icy riffs or anything that was looked at as transforming heavy music into something truly evil. In 2019, it’s not as easy to make a black metal album that will truly wow the listener. People feel like they’ve heard it all before. Well, the Icelandic scene has been ***ting on that notion over the past half decade or so and Misthyrming is leading that charge.
Algleymi is only Misthyrming’s second album and they’ve already cemented themselves as one of the best acts to ever do it in my mind. Their debut album was a visceral slab of perfectly produced, riff heavy black metal that bashed your brains in until you couldn’t see straight. With
Algleymi, their approach is a little bit different but the result is the same, or even better, than what was heard on the debut. They’ve added lots of melody to the brutal riffage that makes you feel as if you’re floating on an ice burg in the middle of the freezing sea awaiting your impending demise. The drumming is extremely technical and not just your typical blast heavy assault, although there’s plenty of that as well, making you feel as if a hammer is being taken to your skull over and over again until everything goes black. Howling vocals soar triumphantly overtop of the instrumentation, making you feel all of the pain and suffering with every word. Even if those words are Icelandic and not understandable to the normal listener.
Misthyrming are an unstoppable force in the modern black metal scene. There’s no gimmicks, no murder, no church burning. There’s only savagery and authenticity within their brand of black metal. They’re a no nonsense type of band from what I can hear and they’ve already garnished a legacy within this scene that most bands can only imagine. If you guys had any sense, you’d stop messing around and jam one of, if not the best, black metal bands to come out within the last 10 years. There will be no disappointment to be found. m/
