HAGAL
Sterbender Traum
(self-financed)
42:27min

HAGAL return with their 2nd CD “Sterbender Traum” after four years of silence, and where “Karg”, its predecessor, had its lengths with songs of up to 18 minutes playing-time, this album is a pleasant surprise in every aspect: Starting with the package, the booklet comes as a fat 24-pages-booklet in soft brown shades. The CD is professionally pressed and the raw but clear recordings took place in Kargewelten Studios in Hamburg, so despite the band’s claiming, I cannot call this a demo, this is well-deserved to be called an album – as “Karg” was already in my eyes as well. But the main focus still is certainly the music, and this is the best part of this CD as well. Imagine “Jormundgand” – era HELHEIM mixed with early KAMPFAR and “Kveldssanger” – era ULVER and you’ll probably have a good impression of how HAGAL really sound. Four of the ten songs are very much in the veins of the first two mentioned bands, while two acoustic pieces include clear vocals and choirs like the ULVER album. The four other songs are pure acoustic songs put in-between, short intermezzi so to say. And while the names may weight like a heavy burden on HAGAL’s shoulders, they put them aside quite easily: This is better than anything HELHEIM have come up since “Av Norron Aett”, better than what KAMPFAR have come up with since “Mellom…” and most certainly better than what most German Pagan bands have come up during the last decade, I’d say, with the probable only exception of HELRUNAR’s debut. Everything here fits, the riffing, the drumming, and they have a clear vision of where to use those high-pitched vocals (remember “Jormundgand”?) or strong male clear vocals. And as indicated in my very first sentence, the band also has managed to keep their songs more compact this time – with the longest only lasting about ten minutes. And if that was not enough, the lyrics of the band are well worth given a read. I do honestly not know a single reason why not to buy this CD if you are at all interested in well-performed Pagan / Viking Metal the old Norse way. www.hagal-blackmetal.de

Nhashi

Nhashi

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