Usually, the self-released albums are uploaded in the demo reviews section, but the global quality (both musical and aesthetic)of this double cd induced us to add this review in the ‘official’ category. To be honest, I really can’t understand why this band stay unsigned. This is clearly something completely incomprehensible. In Norse mythology, Hrimthurs (also named Blast) was a giant disguised as a human stonemason who rebuilt the walls around Asgard, the land of the Aesir. Musically and mainly on the first chapter of this concept, Hrimthurs are pure Norwegian first hour black metal music. Although such comparisons might seem far fetched (if you haven’t heard Hrimthurs’ music before), «War of the Ages» is in fact very close to classics as «Aske», «Det Som Engang Var», «Pentagram», «Soulside Journey» or «A Blaze in the Northern Sky».. Perhaps, this one man project has not reached the skill and the creative quality of those classics but in terms of atmospheres, style and ‘coldness’, Hrimthurs shall impress tons of lunatics of cold and hateful first hour black metal. Everything is in the right measure here: you have to make with grim, dark, diversified, hateful and capturing compositions coupled with very good screamed black metal growling. The second chapter «The Immortal Vehement Winter» astonishingly shows Hrimthurs different musical side. They do not only surprise with a ‘softer’ (more poetic) musical direction, but also add a more majestic / epic background to the black metal roots of the concept. How this singer / musician managed to perform all those instruments as well as creating such different musical worlds is simply beyond me. Either way, it’s impossible to question the effort and commitment that was put into the making of those very thoughtful releases…which is something that is apparent over the course of its duration (111 minutes). Two very nice cds that have been spun many times on my player recently.
Georges

hrimthurs@hotmail.com

anewpaganage@hotmail.com