Review Summary: Norwegians make solid metal.
Skadefro is a black metal band hailing from Norway with some definite influence from the doom side of the spectrum. This is their first full length following up an EP released in 2017. Skadefro dishes out a slow to mid paced brand of black metal that has an almost garage rock style attitude coursing through a good majority of the tracks here. Very much so no frills and straight to the point riffing. Minna fra Nordland clocks in at just under 30 minutes and manages to leave a lasting impression in that short period of time.
The album kicks off with "Ditt farvel". This track is a good indicator of what to expect moving forward through the tracklist. The first notes have a nice effect on the guitar that set a nice abstract, almost haunting tone. "Min siste ferd" follows and it does a great job creating a real triumphant/epic atmosphere. Simple riffing aplenty makes for a good steady groove that the band consistently creates with ease throughout the entire runtime of this album. After this the band really hits their sweet spot and from this point forward the remainder of the album absolutely flies by. From the first note of "Dødsdåp" to the final note of the title track the band squeezes in a number of different types of tracks in such a short span of time. "Dødsdåp" probably ties with the closer as the highlight of the album. It's without a doubt an energy filled anthem with such an infectious riff driving it into yet another track with an infectious riff and this cycle doesn't end until the album does.
The vocalist dishes out a nasty shriek throughout the album and while there is very little variation it fits pretty well with the instrumentation and given the simplistic nature of the music a more flashy approach probably would have been more distracting than anything else. There is a cool little manic, whispery spoken word section tossed in on the epic closing track however. Speaking of the closing track man this one is an absolute monster! It clocks in at just under 10 minutes and not a second of it is disposable. It pops in with a crushing man riff and creates a dreadful atmosphere that is oh so sweet. For a band that had only been in existence for a year at the time of recording this it is almost shocking how well fleshed out they had gotten their sound already. There sure as hell know how to close an album and I highly doubt anyone who's given this one a shot would even considering arguing that point.
Overall Skadefro have offered up a really solid slab of rocking black metal with this album. Anyone craving some riff based nastiness should be pleasantly surprised with this thing. Don't let the mention of doom influence have you thinking this is some lethargic bore-fest either. There's plenty of drive pushing most of these tracks along and the speedier sections of this thing are done with skill. The band really seems to hit it's stride towards the middle of this album with highly replayable jams like "Under stjerneklar Himmel" and "Dødsdåp" . The slight increase in pace truly ramps up the feeling of these tracks and then when those slower moments hit it happens with much greater effect. There's no complaints to be had here. If I were to get pretty nitpicky the only suggestion would have been to throw on a couple more tracks. I'm all for a short album but when this really gets going it feels like it comes to a close fairly quickly afterwards. Another 10 to 20 minutes being added would have been more than welcome. Another thing I wouldn't mind hearing more of is a little more of those tasty leads featured on the title track previously mentioned. That was only a brief section of this album but it's obvious that guitarist Gundersen truly shines here. This one comes highly recommended for anyone into riff based black metal and anyone into doom that can handle the harsh vocal approach. Really if you like riffs in general there's no reason you shouldn't have a good time jamming this.
