The new release from hardened Norwegian black metallers Hagl is supposed to hark back to a golden era of black metal. A point in time when the kvlt was troo and explicit. A time of dissidence maneuvering within a subjugating religious occupation. The age of succession.
Lenket til Livet is relative to black metal like black is to Goth. You can appear to look Goth wearing black but not have the inappropriate Gothic outlook. Lenket til Livet is like that, a vacuous attempt at readdressing cultural appropriation. Under the banner of black metal it is but it is not flying from the battle-worn apertures of discontent, it is more floating in a sea of bananas.
After a melodramatic introduction sultry rasps spout a weary battle cry through a diaspora with more melancholy than passion. A slow and indulgent beginning; the only thing getting ignited here is a pilot light to heat water for a bath. The authentic guitar tones wash away and toil under the vocals, articulating a crispy sadness that is too sweet to be depressive. Keenly striving to resonate some semblance of that which cannot be reached.
Toiling more than playing Lenket til Livet occasionally becomes a tepid marsh of sound. Laboriously trudging along to the slow rock patterns beaten out of the drum kit. With about as much depth as a Heath & Safety poster on a tree, in a forest, at night, about occlusive wood piles.
The general idea of old school BM is prevalent on every track, with each song acting as a platform for more filler content. There is a lack of integrity on the album and a compositional aloofness as given a restructure and bringing more riffs to the boil this tedious attrition drying out from the black metal scene might of made a keen contribution to a new age. Although it is not classic it is unjustly honorific.
4/10
