VINTERSORG – Naturbål (2014)

Vintersorg are a band of history rich and assorted; a band of traditions and experiments. A band that came up on an extreme ground and grew upon the avant-guarde and progressive ambience. With their latest chef-d’oeuvre the duet has managed to get the best of both worlds – the technical prog parts and the wilderness of the folk metal, thus making one of their strongest albums.

Naturbål is an album of balance; an album of majestically blended fusion between black and folk metal. An album, in which good and bad reside together without hindering one another. All the opposite – their dance is one of the most beautiful things you’ll hear this summer. If I had to compare the effort to a certain symbol, I would definately chose the Yin Yang – absolute equipoise.

The tendence set in Orkan is very well followed – bombastic choirs, tough orchestrations, melodious swedish texts coming to us thanks to the mighty voice of Andreas Hedlund. The pace is rather quick, but there are also times of rhythmical divergences.
That which completely blew my mind away were the melodies – at once sensorium-igniting and blood-freezing, they somehow simultaneously live separately but come together in the name of the pure and genuiune epicness.

As it was once said in a poem, ‘the battle is unmercifully ferocious‘. In Naturbål there is a battle, undoubtedly, it’s just not over any kind of ascendancy. It is fought with one purpose and one purpose only – to impress the listeners. The warfare ensconces itself in nine songs, at first sight very different from one another, but actually created in a manner, seeking to demonstrate high level profesionalism and unhuman passion for harmony.

9/10