Review Summary: Romantic Black Metal with amazing soundscapes
Gjennom meg går ingen til hvile is the latest installment in the vast discography of Minneriket, a project from Norway headed by it’s mastermind Stein Akslen. The album is an exercise in reimagining classical norsk metal, bringing and improving diversity and creativity in a once strict and postulated genre.
The overall symphonic approach is mixed with traditional black metal structures, which results in longer songs with medium tempos and sounds like a combination of Darkthrone, Rotting Christ, and Judas Iscariot. Tracks are sometimes interspersed with ambient interludes to build up the atmosphere (and those I find one of the best parts of the album).
The most notable aspects of the release are the choice of instruments and arrangements - with tons of keyboards (and homages to their classical metal tone), strings and orchestration; secondly, the diverse vocals - traditional black metal grunting, a lot of clean female singing, and choir.
From the opening track you know what to expect from Minneriket, as the song develops to a 8+ minute Ulver-ish story. This vector goes on, as songs become more vivid and complex with induction of different vocals and some unusual songwriting approaches that are not typical for the genre.
The so-called “romantic black metal” truly shines on Sorg og savn where Minnerikets formula reaches its peak musically.
It’s a rare thing to witness when the closing part of the album is not less interesting, but even better - and that’s exactly the case. The implementation of melodic and elements and effects reaches the critical mass in Hvil i fred to explode and pave the road for 13+ minute long opus Nade.
Minneriket shows great potential and established style that makes Stein Akslens brainchild one of the bands to look after in 2022 for sure.
