Rimfrost "Veraldar Nagli"

2nd studio album by Swedish black metallers Rimfrost.

Scandinavian Black Metal has been in dire need for an injection of fresh blood during the last years. Now RIMFROST are powerfully sticking it to this scene with ice-cold needles. "Veraldar Nagli", which translates as "Axis of the World" unleashes an avalanche of frost-bitten, melodic riffing. The Swedes from Borås are fusing Black, Death and Thrash Metal into a mighty sound of their own

Listening to this album is like reeling from a flurry of body shots and pile drivers, having your head stomped into the ground by a pair of Viking boots made from German steel, and then being lead into the intoxicating bosom of a Valkyrie. That being said, there are moments of oceanic grandeur and deliciously heavy, slow grinding riffs reminiscent of the marches of axe-wielding warriors here, especially on the longer tracks.In this album, Rimfrost have taken the punishing riffs of old school thrash, the transcendental and atmospheric sound of early Norwegian black metal, combined those two with the basic elements of viking metal, made you wear the whole thing as armor and sent you into battle.
Rimfrost draw heavily from the Teutonic thrash bands here, that unceasing assault of both speedy, quickfire riffs and slow, grinding, extremely heavy riffs resounds from nearly every song. Especially songs such as 'The Black Death', "The Raventhrone', 'I Stand my Ground', and the title track. Then there are obvious black metal influences, that appear as a fog of sound made up of Iron riffs and thunderous blast beats, that's highly reminiscent of Immortal and Darkthrone, in songs such as 'Scandinavium' and 'The Black Death'. Also, nearly every song is quite long (7-8 minutes) and has viking metal influences that lend a momentous feel of soaring, regal grandeur to the album and give the listener the satisfying feeling of having arrived at the shore after a great voyage, 'Void of Time' is an excellent example.
This is an exceptional album as far as good albums go. My only qualms with it are that it isn't very memorable and it tends to get repetitive and boring in some places, towards the half-way mark it takes effort to keep yourself interested, and it hasn't really got a flow when you get down to it but that's hardly noticeable because of the riffs that keep you in the songs. Overall it's a great release and I recommend this to fans of Bathory, Immortal, Amon Amarth and the Teutonic thrash bands.

Sample: