Kvelertak - Splid (2020)^{Release ID: 17180}

I like to think that I am pretty well versed when it comes to hardcore punk music. So what happens when you take the heavy aggression of hardcore punk and add a  black metal tinge to it? Well you'd probably end up with a band like Kvelertak. This is my first time ever stepping into the genre that I will dubiously call "Black 'n' Roll" so I was hoping for an interesting experience.

And what I ended up getting was an album that I was mostly expecting and mostly enjoying. This is aggressive, hardcore punk with just enough tonal dissonance and instability to make it a pretty interesting hybrid of the two genres.

To be fair however, it seems disingenuous to call this album a hybrid album, since Black Metal's influences are derived from hardcore punk. This album truly feels like one of the next logical steps for the genre to take in the vein of classic Black Metal artists like Venom. It has pummeling riffage, the bass, while not a prominent force on this record, does provide a much needed ground work for the rest of the ensemble to carry on. The percussion work is mostly standard timekeeping, occasional fills and sometimes quick thrash time or blast beats. While the vocals will be the most difficult to appreciate, depending on where you are approaching this album from. Given that this is the Metal Academy, I'm sure most of us don't mind. They are strong, powerful vocals with a crisp and clear delivery, making for some excellent, emphatic moments.

When the album takes a clear black metal pivot, it is sparse, but effective. The guitars take on your traditional tremolo picking patterns, usually atonal, while the drums pummel away at some blast beats. Usually, I might criticize an album for having them feel out of place, but on multiple playthroughs, they didn't seem to bother me. The transitions are very well executed. I also really enjoyed the bridge on "Fanden ta dette hull!" paying tribute to another of black metal predecessors: thrash metal. I know it seems crazy to say this, but this genre may be as close as we get to "mainstream black metal"!

It isn't perfect though. Mostly in the production. I noticed the sound of the percussion, specifically in the cymbals, sounded very buzzy and really took me out of the experience from time to time. Also, this album does tend to drag a little long near the end. The last two tracks in particular. They are still good songs, but they seem to run out of ideas after a while and the group comfortably rests in a black metal sound the rest of the way.

But overall, I was impressed by this novel sound. I can tell it is still in the early stages of development as Kvelertak tries to figure out how much black metal is too much, and that may be a fine line that this group as well as others may never find. But still, props to the band for trying and creating a pure, raw, hardcore punk album.