Review by Saxy S for Sólstafir - Svartir Sandar (2011)

After listening to Sólstafir's 2009 album Köld for a previous featured release in The Infinite clan, I had some questions. Questions about the longevity of this style of post-metal. One that borrowed a lot from progressive metal tropes of songwriting and how long this band could get away with it. To put it lightly, Köld is exactly what I would expect an ex-atmo black metal band to make, if they were to take the plunge into post/progressive metal.

Now the 2011 album, Svartir Sandar sees the band now established within the genre, their black metal roots are behind them, and have the freewill to play whatever it is they want to. And this record is certainly a step up from that last album. I like how the album builds a nice pace and tells a story through its instrumentals; the heavier sections are contrasted beautifully by softer, lush clean sections. The songwriting has improved greatly as well, weaving in and out of ideas and phrases to create a nice little narrative.

However, the production has taken a bit of a hit, especially in the albums louder sections. Such as the opening track "Ljós í Stormi" as well as "Þín Orð". The percussion is really loose and there are some portions on this record in which everything is being drowned out by the crash cymbals and the clicking heavy snare drum. And don't think that I didn't notice on the opener the missed cues by the drummer.

And this persists on the second disc of this album as well. I do feel like the overall sound quality made an improvement here in where the bad moments only appear in short spurts, rather than persisting throughout. Like on the outro of " Melrakkablús"  and the section just before the transition on the title track. I really like what the band did here; the transition on "Svartir Sandar" sounds brilliant and the ominous choral arrangement near the outro sound gorgeous. Which leaves us with the trio of "Draumfari", "Stinningskaldi", and " Stormfari". These three tracks together create an interesting environment, but the middle portion loses momentum very quickly. I think the band knew they could combine all of these songs together, so they would split it up and it probably worked out for the best so I can skip the middle portion.

I will say that starting and ending the record with two songs both eclipsing ten minutes is a bit of a gamble, but it surely paid off. " Ljós í Stormi" and "Djákninn" are crafted very well and tell excellent stories. Despite my own personal quibbles with the production, overall, I think that Svartir Sandar is the superior record to Köld. It's a shorter record, but no more endearing than the previous album, the songs are better constructed and the final steps in the complete transition away from black metal have been fully realized.