I have not listened to this album’s predecessor “Kampen”, so “Bifrost” is my first encounter with ELITE, but this is just to make clear that I cannot compare those two albums. However, what we have here is a fine album of Norwegian Black Metal with the emphasis on “Norwegian”. While musically not too close to those bands, I feel reminded on bands like TAAKE, KAMPFAR or TULUS for that eerie Norwegian feeling more than once. Raw yet powerful, partly even hymnic Black Metal with catchy melodies that is rather based in the second than in the first half of 1990s Norwegian Black Metal. This painting of icy Nordic landscapes however is done without keyboards or anything, just the genuine Black Metal instrumentation. With the exception of the last songs, all are held in uptempo and most of them have refrains that will not leave your head very soon. The last song ‘Krampetak’ however is nearly doomy in its speed and repetitive and thus grants the album a very dark and dismal ending. All in all this album is probably not the most essential when it comes to Black Metal, but bearing in mind the escapades of TAAKE, and the fact that you get albums like this more seldom nowadays, one could do worse than buying this album. Certainly a good album. www.no-colours-records.de