Review by Sonny for Kvelertak - Kvelertak (2010)

My only previous contact with Kvelertak was their 2020 album Splid, which I found to be quite a fun record, despite it not really being the type of release I would normally listen to. This, their debut released in 2010, doesn't quite float my boat as well as the later album. This is supposedly an early example of so-called Black 'n' Roll. Now I don't know about that so much, but if I was attempting to pigeonhole Kvelertak's sound then I would have to tag it as blackened punk metal, but that sounds more like late 2000's / early 2010's Darkthrone which this patently isn't. This is a much catchier type of metal altogether, sounding almost like melodic metalcore at times (blackened metalcore anyone?). So, most definitely not my usual type of thing at all. I do love both punk and metal, but only rarely when combined together do they really chime with me - Darkthrone being one such band who have managed it to my satisfaction - but I did enjoy this in the main. The caveat being that I think all the best tracks are front loaded, so that the album's power wanes after the halfway mark - Sultans of Satan being a track I really didn't enjoy and marking the point at which the quality tapers off, losing a little of the earlier tracks immediacy. I think I would have liked to hear a bit more by way of clean vocals as well, personally I find Erlen Hjelvik's vocals gets a little wearying after a while (as I do with most hardcore-derived vocals to be honest).
In a way my reaction to this is similar to the reaction I had to my brush with Trivium's In Waves recently - I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, probably wouldn't respin it too often, but when I fancied something a bit outside my usual then I could quite happily spend an hour or so with it.