Do you want the D? Of course you want the the D. The D does stand for Diabolical though! You can have the D with some N, and you can shove it up your A. Nordjevel are ramming it so hard that generations of blackened metallers will remember this like a burnt offering at a charity function for the betterment of monkeys in glass houses. There’s not much of an evolution from the black metal sound but that doesn’t mean that the genre is exempt from innovation every now and then. Nordjevel inspire flames, burning with eternal delight, in the darkest reaches of the concrete garden.
Representative of Scando-black Metal is the maelstrom that is the signature of blastbeats hammering down like a flash storm, and without deviating from the methodology Nordjevel appropriates a more composed approach that still retains the primitive aspect black metal is loved for. With Nordjevel these are facilitated by riffs that have a sense of the Gothenburg death metal sound. Ironically this is a back to the basics record that is nothing simple, and these guys are not pissing about.
If you’re familiar with the phrase Christ Raping Black Metal then you’ll feel at home with the intense and arcane power Nordjevel exude. Taking away his crucifix and replacing it with a fuck machine that might drill some sense into our dear friend. There are times when, within the aural miasma, apparitions point to clues about the future. In retrospect though the album itself remains a testimony to “if it’s not broken don’t fix it.”
8/10
