HEIMLAND – Tronearvingens Doed

It is fair to say that the incredibly talented Norwegian act known as Heimland made quite a dent in the black metal scene and turned quite a few heads when they unleashed their deeply passionate and perfectly morose Forfedrenes Taarer via the ever-reliable Edged Circle Productions roughly a year ago. With its melancholy album artwork, evocative song titles, great musicianship, and even greater songs, that particular record truly was an enjoyable albeit haunting experience and one that I still very much enjoy listening to. All of that obviously made me quite curious as to what their upcoming release would be comprised of, and as it turns out, it is brimming with vigor and is as compelling as anything that came before.

Their upcoming EP entitled Tronearvingens Doed sports artwork by Edvard Munch, which is pretty much guaranteed to lure me in as I am a huge admirer of said artist’s work, and the two deftly executed tracks that constitute this blackened gem are a masterclass in mesmerizing and bone-chilling music filled with interesting twists and turns that are bound to keep you engaged and enraptured from beginning to end. Epic melodies simply pour out of these chaps but there is always that disquieting sense of dread and malice slithering underneath it all. The eerie power, sublime textures, and stirring riffs (not to mention its understated sense of dark drama) that permeate ‘Grepen Av Moerkets Haand’ make this a personal favorite of mine.

Although relatively close in spirit to Taake and Orkan in terms of atmosphere and style, there is nothing mundane, stereotypical, or even remotely uninteresting about what this skilled outfit from Rogaland does, which is merely another way of saying that Heimland sound neither like a carbon copy of anyone else nor a cheap clone – on the contrary. These gentlemen have conjured up and perfected a sound and identity of their own and nowhere is that more evident than here, so make sure you grab a physical or digital copy of this memorable release when it hits the street in late May.