Arckanum "Fenris Kindir" CD

Black metal has become a tricky subject for me lately. While it has been a huge part of my musical tastes and inspiration for many years and is still a part of the music I play, I very rarely find myself hunting down new releases or even listening much with the exception of a few bands. Arckanum is one of those bands. In fact, with the consistency of the material in the last several years, Arckanum has become my personal favorite black metal band. Fenris Kindir does nothing to damage this status.
I must admit to being largely indifferent to the band in the nineties, hearing a couple tracks but nothing that made me do a double take and seek out more. I attribute that wholly to different tastes at the time. That time period for me left little room for music that wasn't death metal, Maiden or King Diamond. I didn't hear them again until mid 2000's when I was glutting myself on most every BM release coming out at the time. This happened to coincide with Arckanum returning from years of silence with Antikosmos. Bought with maaaany other albums in a short period of time, it only stood out at first because of the DVD like packaging of the album. The vocals were a negative at first too. Soon though the murky magic of the album began so shine through. The vocals grew into a massive and perfect part of the sound, the trollish rasp just what the music needed. Now, years later it is the only album out of that whole binge I remember. That album was all raging atmosphere, an exceptional example of the spirit of black metal.
Everyone that knows Arckanum knows what came next. The follow up Album, pppppppppp, was just awesome. The atmosphere of Antikosmos was intact, but the already great riffs and songs took a MASSIVE upgrade. I headbanged so fucking hard I bounced my forehead off the edge of my desk. Every song, every riff was amazing. the worst riff on the album was bad ass. The only bad thing about a band coming out with an album like that is the near impossible task of following it up. The two follow up albums, Sviga Lae and Helvitismyrkyr were both great albums, but they were just a slight step down.
The 8th full length from mainman Shamaatae sees a slight shift in focus from the three albums before it, but will probably only be of great impact to the more ardent fans. Then again that may be all of us. I cant really imagine there are too many casual fans out there for this. The album I would compare it to the most would be Antikosmos. The powerful melodies that stood out on the more recent output has all but disappeared and what is left twists beneath the smoky production. That signature groove created by the drums and the buzzing, raw guitar remains the same, and the vocals are stronger than ever. The bass has a nice rumbling presence on this as well. The album is a tribute to Fenrir, with several animal sounds sprinkled throughout the album, and marks the return of the ambient noisy tracks that broke up the songs on Antikosmos.
If there is a negative, and trust me I had to search for one it is that the mix can be just a little too muddy on initial spins, sometimes obscuring the interaction between the drums and guitar. but with repeated spins this clears away and the riffs reach out and grab you by the throat and don't let go. That's good for me, as most of my favorite albums weren't immediate ass kickers. I love growers.
I wont bother to go track by track as there honestly isn't a bad one here, but I will give special mention to the last three songs. Angraboda starts out with an anguished female scream before the riff crashes in and throttles you. Uskeptna keeps up much the same mid pace, with death growls thrown in for good measure and some more atmospheric riffs towards the end of the song before Spell lurches the album proper to a close with a groove that just wont leave your head. An awesome one two three punch that will leave you trying to pick yourself off the floor as the noisy Solbls Slgr ends the disc.
What else can I say? Arckanum has yet to release a bad album. and Fenris Kinder is one of the stronger ones in the discography. It is amazing for a band to have this level of consistency, and even more so when it is all the work of one man. If you've never heard them before, you need to fix that right away, and if it doesn't grab you at first give it time. It will, believe me. Buy this. Buy it now.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...