It may
have only takes 6 years, but Canadian Blackened Folk Metallers SIG:AR:TYR are back with the mighty new
release “Northen”. “Northen” marks the bands forth full
length release and the first where vocalist Daemonskald isn’t performing all instrumentals, which leads to some
new sounds in the music although still true to where the band came from
originally.
The
album opens with “Helluland”, beginning
with the sound of the ocean and acoustic guitar and distorted electric guitar
harmonizing until the very early Black Metal riff begins. The song, and a lot
of the album, is very much a call back to what Black Metal was in the 90s but
kicked up a little by infusing the story element of Folk Metal. While very old
school in its approach with sound, Daemonskald shows off his skills in a guitar solo that beats practically
every Black Metal solo recorded between 1990 and 1995 since solos where “true
Black Metal” enough back then. Thinking about it now, a lot of this song has a
sound similar to recent Enslaved between the intriguing pace of the riffs and
drums and the style in which the vocals are presented.
Later
on, you’ll find the song “Markland (The Hammer Fades)” which has a bit of
a slow build up consisting of nothing more than the same slow riff with an
acoustic riff underneath, but once the vocals begin and the riff turns into a
chug you can tell what’s about to go down. Just kidding, you can’t, the common
build up like that leads the mind to think it’s about to get insane and speed
up tenfold and when it doesn’t and your mind can’t figure out what to do, well,
those are the riffs that keep your mind focused on the song. This song is proof
you don’t need to be faster and heavier than everyone else, the chorus is
pleasing to the ears, played with a high tone than you generally expect but
matching the tone and rasp of the vocals. Again, this is another song that
shows off the prowess of the guitar solo and following the solo the song speeds
up to blistering speeds for a short amount of time before jumping into another
solo. Basically in the end what this song is saying is shut the fuck up and don’t
try to guess what’s next because you’re probably wrong, which is a smart
writing technique, when you can’t guess what will be next you’re constantly
glued to the song.
“Last Ship Sails” closes out the album
in an epic Viking fashion, between the harmonizing intro that you can picture
boats setting sail to, to the riff that follows that puts your mind on
imagining the Vikings on those boats off at sea. Having a consistently epic
sound to it, this song sets the mood for what it must have been like to lead
families behind not only back then, but now, going off to fight anywhere, the soundtrack
to the human mind.
To
close this out, I want to say my one issue with this release. While all the
songs on this album are consistently great, written very well, show off the
musicianship of all the instrumentalists, there’s one part of the album that
was bothering me and still does now after quite a few listens all the way
through. The vocals on this album are a bit low and generally in a lot of spots
where the instrumentals do get a bit chaotic the vocals can be very hard to
hear and as this is an album that tells stories it can be a bit frustrating
when you want to hear the words. I say SIG:AR:TYR
wrote a great album with “Northen”
and it’s a great welcome back after 6 years, anyone who’s a fan of Extreme
Metal infused with Folk Metal than pick this up ASAP.
80/100
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